What Happened Now? A Cleveland Newsletter
Issue 869: Sept. 16, 2025
"What Happened Now?" is a lively roundup and analysis of the top stories of the day in Northeast Ohio from News 5's Joe Donatelli. It’s like getting the news from a friend who got into journalism for the free newsroom coffee but stayed for the accountability.
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Holding them accountable: As readers of this newsletter know, we spend a lot of time covering Cuyahoga County’s Downtown Safety Patrol – the fatal chases, the shootings, the rifles pointed out the window during high-speed chases. Is endangering the public worth the attempt to reduce crime? – that’s the question. Maybe you can make a reasonable case. Maybe you can’t. Someone needs to explain it. The sheriff would be a good person to explain it, but he doesn’t want to talk. Yet. So he says. Investigator Tara Morgan is waiting.
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Kentucky-Ohio tiff: Vice President J.D. Vance and Sen. Rand Paul are locked in a war of words. Many of them are swear words because we’re now a long way from Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill. Among Paul’s many objections to the Trump administration is the belief that America should not execute people without a trial, which, and I hate to belabor this point twice in one week, is the type of thing that makes us not China. Vance-Paul. Ohio-Kentucky. It’s a fascinating rivalry pitting Paul’s principles against Vance’s … let’s say, malleable nature. Read more.
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Lawmakers who are suddenly worried they could be killed want the death penalty for lawmaker killers: “After the deaths of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Ohio lawmakers want to increase the penalties for politically motivated violence,” reports the Columbus Dispatch.
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Unions in Ohio move to the right: “Organized labor is shifting to the right in Ohio, where several unions have issued surprisingly early endorsements of Republicans in the state’s races for governor and U.S. Senate,” reports NBC News. Makes sense. They’re in power, and they could be for a while.
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A great way to get attention for yourself in 2025 is to call for the National Guard to occupy a Democrat-run city: In unrelated news, Rocky River Rep. Republican Max Miller (R) is calling for the National Guard to be deployed to Cleveland.
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Meanwhile: There are amazing people all around us doing amazing things like 3-D printing prosthetic limbs for injured goats. Watch this story.
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Things to do this weekend: Fake summer continues! Get out there and do stuff.