🎵 We're back! On this date in 1949, Almeda C. Adams, founder of the Cleveland Music School Settlement, passed away.

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 81 and a low of 69.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Ellen Zekoski!

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Situational awareness: Democrat gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton addressed her "rough day" during a Cleveland Labor Day event — her first campaign stop after an armed man charged at her Sunday near Youngstown.

• Patrick Havas, 38, faces charges of assault and disorderly conduct and is being held in the Mahoning County Jail.

Today's newsletter is 1,043 words — a 4-minute read.

Ohio lawmakers are weighing a ticket-market crackdown as Cleveland prepares for more teams and venues — and fans face rising costs to see them.

State of play: A recent study from the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator estimates fans paid $11.3 billion in unnecessary ticket costs last year.

• That includes $6.8 billion in excess online-platform fees and $4.5 billion in inflated scalper prices.

Zoom in: Cleveland plans to welcome two major concert venues — a 6,200-seat Gateway District amphitheater in 2028 and a 10,000-seat North Coast Harbor venue as early as 2029.

• Northeast Ohio is also getting a new Browns stadium in 2029, plus WNBA and professional soccer teams.

How it works: Online ticket platforms charge fees for facilitating sales for events at those venues.

• A roughly $250 ticket to an upcoming Rush concert at Rocket Arena, for example, includes about $50 in SeatGeek fees.

Yes, but: That's at face value. Resale tickets for a concert like Rush are typically listed on secondary sites for hundreds of dollars.

• So are premium seats to marquee Cavs games, including LeBron James' return with the 76ers and matchups with the Knicks or San Antonio Spurs.

The intrigue: The Vanderbilt study proposes banning markups above face value and capping service fees at 10%. Ohio lawmakers are considering their own measures.

• A bill passed by the House in June would require upfront price and fee disclosures and target deceptive resale practices.
• A separate Senate bill introduced last year would cap ticket fees at $5.

The other side: Resale-market supporters say secondary marketplaces help prevent counterfeits and let supply and demand set prices.

The bottom line: Cleveland is about to have more ways than ever to catch a game or show.

• The question is how much fans will pay for the privilege.

Phones down, folks. We've got a problem. Cuyahoga County ranks at the very top of an unfortunate list: distracted-driving crashes.

Why it matters: The county had nearly 4,400 distracted-driving crashes from 2021 through 2025, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, far more than any other county in the state.

• Cincinnati's Hamilton County was a distant second, with about 3,800 crashes over the same span.

The big picture: State Highway Patrol issued 42,371 distracted-driving citations in 2025, up 42% from 2024.

• In the two years after primary enforcement began, troopers issued 65,503 distracted-driving citations — about four times as many as the 16,344 issued during the comparable two-year period before enforcement changed.

The latest: Cuyahoga County is seeing its own enforcement surge in 2026, with citations up 113% year over year, from 936 to 1,996.

Flashback: Ohio outlawed texting behind the wheel in 2012, but generally couldn't stop adult drivers solely for texting until the expanded hands-free law took effect in 2023.

What changed: Ohio's expanded hands-free law took effect in April 2023, allowing officers to stop drivers they see illegally using or holding a phone.

• The law generally prohibits drivers from holding or supporting a phone, scrolling social media or manually entering information while driving, with limited exceptions.

Ohio's distracted-driving data also includes crashes involving distractions from passengers and other activities inside a vehicle.

The bottom line: Ohio is writing far more distracted-driving tickets under its hands-free law, but Cuyahoga County's five-year crash total shows the region still has plenty of room for improvement.

🎻 The unionized musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra unanimously voted to authorize a strike last week after unsuccessful negotiations with management.

• Their current contract extension expires Sept. 23. (Cleveland.com)

🚧 The Brookpark Bridge over Valley Parkway was abruptly closed last week out of an abundance of caution due to deteriorating beam conditions. (Fox 8)

🚲 The $11 million Mandel Lakefront Trail along North Marginal Road — Cleveland's first multimodal pathway linking Downtown to the east side waterfront parks — is now open to the public. (Cleveland Scene)

😤 Cleveland Councilman Mike Polensek penned a letter accusing Mayor Justin Bibb of disrespecting city council in his unilateral attempts to close Burke Lakefront Airport. (Cleveland 19)

Have you ever stepped into The Arcade, mourned its lost commercial vitality, and soothed yourself by imagining it as the world's most beautiful bookstore?

• You're not alone.

State of play: September is Cleveland Book Fest, a monthlong celebration of the literary arts, and organizers kicked off festivities last weekend by transforming the Arcade into a pop-up book fair featuring more than 20 booksellers and literary organizations.

Verdict: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

What they're saying: "So many people told us we should do this every weekend," Literary Cleveland director Matt Weinkam tells Axios.

• Mac's Backs needed a second shipment of books, he said.
• Cleveland Public Library's store sold more in one day than it typically does in a month, and the disability-focused Nightlight Books reported its most profitable event ever.

What's next: The Book Fest team hopes to expand the Arcade fair next year — and potentially make it more than an annual event.

• We await updates with bated breath.

In the meantime, the 2026 Book Fest promises to be bigger than ever, with dozens of author talks, readings and writing programs — including the free Inkubator Writing Conference this week — leading up to the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards on Sept. 18.

• Headliners include Colson Whitehead, Jesmyn Ward, Marlon James and Ibram X. Kendi.

🐎 Sam can't stop watching videos of the World Nomad Games in Kygyzstan!

🎥 Troy is watching the documentary "Teenage Wasteland," a darling from this year's Sundance Film Festival, on Netflix.

This newsletter was shepherded by Delano Massey, who filled in while Tyler Buchanan enjoyed a much-needed vacation last week.