"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 drove around Kirtland looking for Melon Heads during his misspent youth.
Look out for Melon Heads: A local urban legend is set to reach a global audience as a film inspired by a Lake County cryptid moves to several streaming platforms. A cryptid, for those of you who are not nerds, is a being whose existence has never been proved – like Bigfoot, the Mothman or a 21st Century Browns Franchise Quarterback. In March 2024, Northeast Ohio native and filmmaker Eddie Lengyel talked to Catherine Ross ahead of screenings of “Melon Heads: House of Crow.” During Halloween week, the film debuted on Tubi and Fandango. The movie drew inspiration from creatures said to be wandering the woods near Wisner Road in Kirtland. More.
It’s election day: There are local races on the ballot, many of them school levies, and the stakes for school districts are high because of school funding made by the state legislature, reports Morgan Trau. We’ll have election results on our website after the polls close at 7:30 tonight.
No jail time for Bobby George: Are there different rules for the rich and well-connected? I don’t know. What I do know is that over a year after he was accused of attempted murder and rape, plus seven other charges, Bobby George was able to plead guilty to a single count of attempted strangulation and avoid prison time altogether.
We did nothing wrong, which is why we hired a powerful defense attorney: MetroHealth has hired well-known Cleveland defense attorney Ian Friedman to help the hospital navigate a criminal investigation into the death of a woman inside her hospital room in May, reports Scott Noll. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Tasha Grant’s death a homicide and said the 39-year-old double leg amputee died as a result of physical restraint in the setting of congestive heart failure. “On that day with the passing of Ms. Grant, this was a tragedy,” said Friedman at a news conference Monday. “It was an unavoidable tragedy. Everyone did what they could do in that case.” The news conference marked the first time since Grant’s death that hospital administrators publicly addressed the incident.
We’ve been reporting on the problems with the county’s Downtown Safety Patrol: Now, the sheriff wants to expand patrols across the county, reports Tara Morgan.
The press conference that was not about what they said it was about: Gov. Mike DeWine and Mayor Justin Bibb appeared together at a press conference yesterday to tout the success of the local/state/federal crime-fighting initiative that hit the ground in Cleveland following the 2023 mass shooting in the Warehouse District. The press conference – to my eyes – was clearly about making a public case against dispatching National Guard troops to Cleveland, which Bibb and DeWine tried to avoid saying directly because no one wants You Know Who to get mad at them.
Cedar Point still the greatest: “Cedar Point retained its position as the most-visited amusement park in the United States not located in Florida or California in 2024,” reports Cleveland.com. The Donatelli family did its part, going several times this summer. In related news, I will never eat chicken tenders and fries again in my life. (Who am I kidding? Yes, I will.)
East Coast bias: This is my best/worst sports radio take. If Kenny Lofton had played most of his career in New York or Boston, he’d be in the Hall of Fame right now. He was the best center fielder of his generation not named Ken Griffey Jr., but because he played his prime years in Cleveland, he’s not even on the ballot this year.
MLB, sportsbooks close to deal to ban micro ‘prop bets’: “Gov. Mike DeWine has been battling to ban micro proposition or prop bets, which are wagers on one-off actions athletes take during a game, which settle as soon as a play is over. DeWine – who’s long been concerned about gambling and is a part owner of a minor league baseball team – has been holding off on demanding state action on those bets for now,” reports the Statehouse News Bureau.
Good news: Readers of this newsletter have asked before about posting this newsletter as a link on the internet. I tried a couple of different things, and either they didn’t look good or were too labor-intensive. Well, good news. If you look at the top right corner of this newsletter, you can click a link that says “View this email online.” It takes you to a URL, which you can share or bookmark or print and frame and hang in your living room – whatever floats your boat.
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