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This election year has already been busy, and there's still 90 days to go.

We hear from journalists who witnessed an extraordinary event near the Ohio Pennsylvania border.

And I'm Sarah Donaldson in Miami County, where some of the first legal recreational marijuana in the state was sold.

We'll tell you all about it this week on the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Nine months after Ohioans voted to join more than 20 other states and legalizing recreational marijuana sales began this week.

Home growing of plants and personal use became legal in December, but up until Tuesday, Ohioans could not legally buy marijuana here.

One of the first official customers was Republican Representative Jamie Calendar, a legalized marijuana advocate who was invited to cut the ribbon at a dispensary in his district in northeast Ohio.

My statehouse news Bureau colleague Sarah Donaldson went to pick one in western Ohio and talk to some of the earliest buyers.

Karen.

Some customers had some serious sticker shock when it came time to choose and check out.

The products are at a premium right now, but everybody was still really excited and celebrating the long awaited day.

For Ohio Cannabis Company owner Brian Wingfield.

The wee hours of Tuesday morning felt reminiscent of late December.

The only issue it was already 75°F at 4 a.m. in Columbus, and I kind of felt like a kid on Christmas morning who got up before his parents did and knows you can't get out of bed yet, and he's just sitting there waiting for the appropriate time to get up and go start today.

And I could not fall back asleep.

The Ohio Cannabis Company is one of 98 licensed medical marijuana dispensaries across the state that can now sell to recreational of age customers.

We're now in a place where Ohio cannabis consumers no longer need to go to the illicit market to buy unregulated, untested products.

They no longer need to make the drive to that state up north and give their tax dollars to Michigan communities.

We can keep all of that money right here in the Buckeye State.

Tom Herron is with the Ohio Cannabis Coalition, or oaken?

It's the trade association for the state's stringent marijuana market.

The joke is we're the second most regulated industry right after nuclear power, for one.

The Department of Commerce's relatively new Division of Cannabis Control has cameras on every corner of dispensaries properties.

The division started notifying retailers on August 2nd of their operational certificates.

It was the final puzzle piece most of them were waiting on.

Before then, only cultivators, processors and labs had the certificates.

So by the morning of August 5th, some customers statewide were met with lines outside and crowded waiting rooms inside dispensaries.

Under the summer sun, a line of cars in the drive thru queue snaked around the black Brown Ohio Cannabis Company building.

Todd Toner and his son Sean took a break from drywall installation and made the short drive over from Sydney.

By the time we got here, there was already a line and everything.

It was damn near packed already.

His father says he didn't balk at the costs of their individual hauls, which included flour and edibles and an oral mist bottle, all concealed in black plastic bags.

I didn't make special trips up to Michigan, but I know people who have.

But like, yeah, you know, it's been up there so long that they've gotten so many dispensaries, they kind of flooded the market, and then they had to get competitive and their prices came down.

They are holding out that Ohio will follow that trend.

But Josiah Sharp let his medical card lapse prior to recreational sales.

And now he's reconsidering.

He bought one THC cartridge.

To me, it would be silly to spend a lot more money than I needed to, because I know the value of the product and what it's worth.

So I didn't go crazy today.

It wasn't like a kid in a candy store.

Wingfield says products are coming in at a higher cost because of concerns about shortages, maybe even 2 to 3 months down the line.

He says it will take time for growers to get their footing in the environment, which is much wider than medical only.

And then we'll see the prices kind of drift back down.

You know, as someone who's on both sides of the counter, you know, I'd like to see the prices come down too.

He says he thinks those shortages will be most acute among plant products, rather than processed products like cartridges or oils.

So far, Herron hasn't heard of any shortages.

The cannabis industry is not immune from the laws of economics that apply in every single other industry.

I think what you'll see over the next several months is, prices will continue to come down as supply increases.

And despite the price now, sharp says he believes legalizing recreational marijuana should be seen as a high point in the state's history.

Just being able to go in and even if you have to pay a little more and get it, that's a big deal.

That's life saving.

Herron says as many as 150 new dispensaries could pop up in the next year.

Sarah Donaldson, Statehouse News Bureau.

Ohio's ban on gender transition treatment for minors is now in effect, but the case is not over.

Franklin County Judge Michael Holbrook upheld House Bill 68, which passed after Republican lawmakers overrode governor Mike DeWine veto in January.

The decision comes from a lawsuit filed in March on behalf of 212 year old transgender girls, whose families argued they would lose critical, medically necessary health care under House Bill 68.

But Holbrook ruled the law, which also includes the ban on trans athletes and girls and women's sports, did not violate the single subject rule for legislation nor Ohio's constitutional amendment on health care freedom.

Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said the law protects children from irreversible medical and surgical decisions.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has filed with the 10th District Court of Appeals, Ohio's Republican candidate for U.S. Senate started a week long bus trip through the state on Monday in the hopes of raising his profile and name recognition as he runs against well-known Democratic incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown.

Northeast Ohio businessman Bernie Marino kicked off the tour in Chillicothe talking about immigration, inflation and global instability.

But he also told reporters about his plans to take on Brown, who has significantly outraised and outspent him.

in polls right now.

We're either even down two or down four.

We were down five, six and eight.

So now we're going to open a can bars on him and we'll see.

I think jumping the ball, they're going to do it when people are paying attention.

Before talking to supporters, Marino greeted some Democratic protesters who held signs blasting him over a $400,000 payout he made to former employees who sued him for wage theft in 2017.

I'm frustrated because Bernie Marino has harmed workers.

He's bad for Ohioans.

He's bad for this community.

And people are standing up and saying, no, workers aren't voting for Bernie Marino.

We refuse to pretend that he's been good for workers.

We refuse to pretend that he hasn't been in all kinds of legal trouble.

And I just can't vote for a man like that.

protesters organized by the Ohio Democratic Party followed Marino throughout his bus tour.

Among those who came out to support Marino in Chillicothe was Tanya menendez.

Retired from the county sheriff's office, she showed off two Trump themed tattoos, one of which she got after attending the January 6th, 2021, rally that became an attack on the U.S. Capitol.

6th.

I was January 6th.

So you are 100.

I'm 100% Trump.

I will not take more for that.

How She said Marino's comments supporting Trump means he has her vote.

All I can do is hope and believe.

Just listen to his.

His, All right.

him talking to the crowd.

Yeah, I would, I would, I would say, I think he's right there with it.

He better be better be be out if he gets it back in.

Sherrod Brown, who's leading in money polls and name I.D., has not launched a high profile campaign tour but has made appearances, such as at the statewide Democratic gathering last month.

Republicans have won 80% of statewide elections in Ohio since 1990.

That's likely to be a consideration for Brown, who is seeking his fourth term in the Senate.

He hasn't said if he will campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris, but has said he will skip the Democratic National Convention starting August 19th.

The first convention he will miss since 1994.

The winner of this year's presidential election will make history.

Either it will be the first Black and South Asian woman president, or the second president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, as well as being the first convicted felon to win the Oval Office.

But this election season has already been historic, with Joe Biden becoming the first president since 1968 and the eighth overall to leave the race.

And with Donald Trump becoming one of almost a dozen presidents and former presidents to be shot at, and an assassination attempt that happened at a rally just over the Ohio border in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.

Among those covering the event was Julie Carr Smyth, an Ohio reporter for the Associated Press.

My Statehouse News Bureau colleague Joe Ingles talked with her about it.

It's, rural Pennsylvania.

Hot summer day, sunny, 92 degrees, muggy.

it's a fairground.

So, people are arriving on foot and in their cars.

I saw couples holding hands.

Lots of Trump signs.

Trump merch.

and there was just sort of a very casual, you know, this was Trump country 100%.

And so it was very calm, and so but everything seemed to be going, fine.

And it was much more relaxed from the Trump rallies I've been to in the past.

There wasn't a lot of conflict.

I wasn't seeing a lot of anger when I talked to people, there many of them, it was their first rally and they were super excited about it.

like I say, it was on the fairgrounds.

There were food trucks.

You know, the kind of thing you could imagine an Ohio State Fair kind of atmosphere.

so how close are you to the stage set at the scene for us as far as where you were, where President Trump, the former President Trump was.

Right.

So the the stage was sort of, set up in the front of this field, this big, farm field.

And, you know, it was pretty elaborate.

There were chairs and grandstands.

And then, of course, the huge backdrop of that huge flag, which is sort of hurling that fur out unfurled there in mid-air.

and the, the media section is right in the front, behind, let's say 20 or 30 rows of chairs.

my particular position within the media section was sort of toward the back because, as I said, I was I had been running a little bit late and, a lot of the spots that were under the bleachers and under the tents that were in shade were taken, there was all kind of media kind of tucked away where I couldn't see them.

And so I was planted under a table in the far back because it was 92 degrees, and I was typing on my laptop, trying to do my voter interviews and that's usually the kind of the toughest part of my day, because getting in, getting those to the desk and then our Washington people will be watching the speech, maybe even have a copy of the speech in advance and have pre-written a lot.

And so I'm just there monitoring, honestly for worst case scenarios.

And the worst case scenario did happen.

So tell us about that.

Did you realize what was happening when it was happening?

I think my first thought and many in the audience felt the same way.

The first thought was, oh, it was a firecracker because we're coming right off July 4th.

You've been hearing these a lot in your neighborhood or whatnot.

And, then it just kept going.

And now we now, I think that the shooter got off maybe eight rounds, and then you had the sharpshooters who shot back.

So it was very apparent then that it was was shooting, and then, of course, the main knowledge came from the fact that Trump grabbed his ear and went down.

He looked at the blood and then dropped, and the whole field just dropped.

And then there sort of silence, confusion and people, I'm hearing people whisper, are you okay?

To their family members and loved ones?

And then a lot of people murmuring, what has happened?

Is he dead?

Has he been hit?

What's happening?

So people knew that it was shooting.

what did you do?

I can imagine that as a reporter you're trying to get the story, but then you're probably kind of in a state of shock yourself, right?

Yes.

I mean, I think in those moments, I all of that ran through my head.

I remember running forward toward the stage to try to see what I could see, and what was happening, which at that point, Trump was already back down behind the podium.

And so there wasn't much to see.

And then running back toward where my laptop was because my phone signal was horrible at this location.

And so I wanted they always are.

And so I wanted to be by my laptop so I could tell people what was typing into our channel, shots have been fired.

And it was I mean, the signal took forever for that to hit.

They were probably already had an alert on the wire before I even could get back there and type that, and so I just dove under the table like everybody else.

And I just sat under the table wondering what to do.

eventually he stood.

You could hear the, you know, the the crowd began to cheer.

He had thrown his fist in the air.

people began to stand up.

So I stood up and immediately went to my phone and just began videotaping what I was seeing as people stood up.

And then as they were directed by the police.

Get out of here.

It's time to go.

So we knew he wasn't going to continue speaking.

There was not going to be any more event.

so I videotaped people being told to go.

Then I went back up to the front, where a lot of witnesses and things had come to, to speak to the media.

And, I was trying to capture some audio and video of those folks, talk to them, see if they had what we call UGC, like user generated content, which is if they took a video of me or had a photo that we might want at AP.

and then this all got disrupted because people began sort of approaching the media stands and screaming at the journalists, this is your fault.

This is your fault.

And it was a very scary moment for everybody.

and the police eventually came and took those people away.

Right on the heels of that, the Secret Service came and screamed, you guys got to get out of here!

The everybody's got to shut down.

And normally, you know, they will let the media stay for a period of time, not a long period of time, but a period of time afterward, because our job really is on the back end of things.

We have to do our writing and sending and after the fact.

So, but they were like, you've got to leave right now.

And they were sort of get out of here.

This is an active crime scene.

Now we got to get all the media out.

And I heard radios and people being instructed to get us out.

So I ran and got my stuff and I just started exiting.

and then I started trying to interview people as I'm exiting because I knew that, like, all the witnesses are leaving fast.

Yeah.

And they kept on saying, you can't stop here, you can't stop here, and kept pushing us back.

I did eventually only managed to capture, 2 or 3 witness interviews on camera people, a couple firefighters who were real nice to me, and they had helped with the victims of the shooting, the ones who were in the grandstands who have been hit.

and so they told me their story.

and then I spoke to a couple other people, at which point it was like the witnesses were gone and the whole place was kind of empty.

Did you see any of the other people that were hit or any of the other casualties here?

No, I mean, they all were going out behind the stage.

So all of the like we did see LifeFlight helicopters coming and things like that and saw, people being whisked away.

But all that was sort of happening up close to the stage where people weren't allowed to be.

So, those people were taken away.

But from where I stood, I could see the building quite clearly where the shooter had been.

by this point, the there was law enforcement walking over the top of that roof.

And that whole field that had been full just seconds before was completely empty.

everybody's sort of, you know, the paper container for their cheese fries and their water bottles just left.

Just everybody.

Zoom went out.

Wow.

And then from there, it was just an odd, I mean, I probably lost track of the number of hours I was there, but I was one.

It turned out I was one of the few journalists who stayed in because most of them had trucks in the in the parking area and had gone to their trucks where they could broadcast and do their work.

And I stayed on the fairgrounds.

So at one point, AP asked me to go up live on my phone.

And so I basically that just entails putting a camera on the action and just putting it in a spot that can stay there for, let's say, 30 minutes or 45 minutes.

So I was doing that and for two, it honestly, while that was happening, I was listening to a family that was just talking about the whole day, what they had seen, what they thought, and whatever.

And so as soon as this live shot went down, I walked over to them and I said, I'm sorry.

I couldn't help but overhear.

Would you say that on camera for me?

So I got that whole family and their story and their thoughts on camera as well.

you know, I noticed, when I as a, you know, I was watching X and I noticed all the tweets coming out of there.

Are they access?

I'm not sure what they are.

The comments coming out on, on that platform.

and, and it seemed like almost immediately there were all kinds of conspiracy theories and accusations made against people.

Were you hearing that immediately on site, or were people more shocked than anything?

I mean, how that play out there?

yes, I was definitely hearing that.

For example, these folks who were screaming at the media, it was it's all your fault.

It's all your fault.

You have caused this.

So that is sort of the underlying feeling of a lot of people is that somehow the media, way of covering Donald Trump over these last years, is to blame for people disliking him.

Now, at that time, we didn't know this was a single shooter working alone, 20 years old.

His motive is still somewhat in question.

but then other people were saying that, the hand of God had saved him, because he turned his head at just the right minute.

And instead of that boy going through his head, it hit his ear.

there were other ideas that this was them.

And I would ask people, well, who is them?

While that they're out to get us?

They're out to get Donald Trump.

And really, they were not they had a lot of theories, but what they were able to tell me in terms of who them is was unclear.

did you notice anything different about the security at this event versus other outdoor Trump rallies you've attended?

Well, you know, I can only say for myself.

So as I mentioned, I was kind of running late.

they allow me through, which they often do because, you know, you're AP and they know that you kind of serve the a lot of the newspapers and the broadcast stations.

And so, they did let me through.

They inspected my bag and everything like that.

And I did have to go through, vice as well as a pat down and all that stuff.

but then when I got to the media area, I couldn't find the, the entry way for it.

And so one of the women there said, well, that other girl just jumped the fence, and so we can help you.

And so I put my bags on the other side of the media fence, and I climbed over it.

And so there's evidence that at least two people did that.

And my normal experience would have been that could have happened.

But normally someone would have run up to me and said, where's your credential?

Who are you?

Why are you in here?

And that didn't happen.

So that was my experience.

The other thing was, as I said, it was a very relaxed.

One of the people that I talked to, a couple of days later, I was sent to the town of Butler, where I did a lot of voter interviews, and people said, you know, this is Trump country.

Maybe our guard was down a little bit because we thought, how could that happen?

And this local lawyer said to me, I told my friend, well, when, when, the Pope got shot, he got shot in Vatican City.

So they look at it as the same way, sort of.

They just he was at home and maybe people weren't as vigilant as they might have been in covering the story.

Was there anything unusual or remarkable that you took away from it?

People at that moment were almost universally hoping for, a tone that is more calm, that is more caring and and loving toward other people.

I think that that was this was right around, you know, when everything was and has been going crazy for so long.

And that was the take away, was that most people, you know, were praying for Donald Trump.

Praying for Joe Biden's health at that time were just, feeling like Americans who were sort of stuck in this crazy world that we're stuck in.

so has this affected I mean, would you be comfortable covering another Trump rally outdoors like that?

And how has this experience changed you as a reporter?

Is there going to be things red flags that you're going to be looking for in the future?

I think I would be I would be better at it a second time, but I do not wish for a second time.

I will say, you know, it it took some time.

It took, the better part of that week to sort of ground myself and calm down.

and then I was assigned to cover a J.D.

Vance rally the following Monday.

and it was indoor rally, but I call that kind of like getting back on the horse and I was nervous about it, but I was glad that I did it because basically I, you know, I made it there, I got through it was a it was a nice, upbeat, pretty straightforward event, like the kind of covered in the past.

But I do find myself wondering, will these sort of relax, sort of political rallies even be a thing of our future, in that kind of an outdoor venue?

What are your big takeaways from this?

What did you learn from this that you didn't quite think about or know about before?

well, like I say, everybody I have been speaking to out there is it's a little tender and I hear a lot of kindness that people have on the ground, average American people.

And, for me, you know, I kind of took that away.

I also, I was I was pretty proud to be a journalist, even though, you know, it immediately started that people said, you know, this wasn't true.

Things were being made up that, you know, every word they were hanging on.

And of course, in those early moments, you're pushing out versions and versions and updating as you know more.

And the idea that those versions are somehow tainted or intentionally spun in some way, is just not accurate.

And so I think in the end, I felt like our coverage was, was, pretty good.

And I thought that it was validating to me as a journalist to, to serve that role for people.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State News Talk or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show.

You can also hear more from the Bureau on our podcast, The Ohio State House scoop.

Look for it every Monday morning wherever you get your podcasts.

And please join us again next time here for the State of Ohio.

A.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.