🏙️ On this date in 1957, the University Circle Master Plan was officially presented to the city officials.

🌧️ Today's weather: Partly sunny then a chance of rain showers, high of 70.

⚾️ Situational awareness: The Guardians host Tampa Bay for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series at 1pm today at Progressive Field.

• The game was moved up from a later first pitch due to expected inclement weather.

Today’s newsletter is 1,099 words — a 4-minute read.

Ohio's biggest political races are bringing out the big guns, with former President Barack Obama joining President Trump in campaigning in the Buckeye State before the Nov. 3 election.

Why it matters: The high-profile visits underscore the national stakes of our U.S. Senate race, which could determine control of the chamber, plus a competitive governor's contest.

Driving the news: Obama will headline a Cleveland rally on Oct. 24 alongside Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown and gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton.

State of play: Republicans have already deployed their biggest political names to Ohio.

• Trump rallied supporters near Dayton on Oct. 3 and Youngstown on Monday, while Vice President J.D. Vance appeared in Lima on Oct. 9.
• The appearances have focused on boosting Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

What they're saying: During Monday's rally, Trump emphasized Ohio's importance to Republicans, noting it is among the few states where he held two rallies this election cycle.

• He also announced that Cleveland had been selected for a 46,000-square-foot facility to manufacture, repair and maintain U.S. Navy submarine components, crediting Husted with helping secure the project.

The big picture: Ohio has shifted decidedly Republican in presidential elections. Trump carried the state by 11 percentage points in 2024, while Obama won in both 2008 and 2012.

Yes, but: Statewide contests are attracting renewed national attention.

• Ohio was on track as of last week to host the country's most expensive Senate race, in terms of ad spending and reservations.

The bottom line: Both parties are leaning on their biggest political names to energize supporters and drive turnout in the final weeks of the midterm campaign.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District will vote later this month on a $603,000 contract renewal with Flock Safety, potentially extending its controversial license plate surveillance program for another year.

Why it matters: CMSD operates about 200 automatic license plate readers at 62 schools, which has drawn mounting scrutiny from parents, teachers and community activists.

Driving the news: District safety officials told a school board working group Tuesday that Flock's cameras are essential tools for investigating break-ins, car thefts and other crimes on school property.

State of play: An internal audit commissioned by the school board found no significant deficiencies in the district's surveillance safeguards and confirmed that nationwide access to its network had been disabled.

Yes, but: The nationwide access restriction came later than CMSD previously acknowledged.

• In June, the district incorrectly told Signal Cleveland that only CMSD security personnel and Cleveland police could access its data.
• In fact, more than 500 outside agencies had access, conducting more than 130,000 searches in June alone, according to the district's presentation Tuesday.
• CMSD did not revoke outside access until July 6, Signal Cleveland reports.

The other side: "Even if we believed this technology to be a cost-effective deterrent to car break-ins," Bryn Adams of the Flock No Cle campaign tells Axios, "why would we trust people who have repeatedly made false and/or misleading claims about how the system works, where the cameras are placed, who owns the hardware, and who has access to the data to be responsible stewards of this extremely powerful and invasive AI surveillance tool?"

Between the lines...

🍗 Good Company Wings, the latest restaurant in the Good Company family, will open Nov. 12 in the former home of Wolfpack Chorus in Little Italy. (I'm From Cleveland)

• The original Battery Park location will close Oct. 25. (Cleveland Scene)

💸 The Bail Project, which arrived in Cleveland in 2019 to provide cash assistance for criminal defendants, is no longer taking on new clients in Ohio, citing a decline in philanthropic support. (The Marshall Project - Cleveland)

⏸️ Legislation introduced Monday at Cleveland City Council would extend the city's current data center moratorium through Jan. 29, 2027. (Cleveland Scene)

🍿 You can watch the first trailer for "The Land," Hulu's upcoming series centered on a fictional version of the Browns organization. (ESPN)

👋 Sam here. The best thing I ate this week was the Sze Chuan Cold Noodle from Lao Sze Chuan at Pinecrest.

The big picture: The upscale Chinese restaurant debuted in Chicago's Chinatown in 1998 and opened its Pinecrest location — the first in Ohio — in 2023.

• A new Strongsville location opened last month.

Confession: I have become such a Han Kabob truther that I rarely am stirred to try new Chinese joints, especially outside Asiatown. Only because I had an errand at Pinecrest — new jeans! — did my wife convince me to stay for dinner.

What we ordered: A smattering of appetizers to share, from a menu our server winkingly likened to the Cheesecake Factory's.

• The star of the show were the noodles ($10.50), bursting with floral Szechuan flavors and laced with just enough peanuts for texture.
• The presentation and plating were meticulous across the board. The soup dumplings ($14.95), for example, arrived steaming hot and perfectly arranged in a bamboo box.

🌶️ Sensitive palates and tummies take heed! We split the dry chili chicken entree ($23.50), and critic Doug Trattner was correct when he reviewed Lao Sze Chuan in 2024.

• This dish contained "enough Szechuan peppercorns to numb a pre-op dental patient."

Plus: Feeling adventurous, I ordered a bottle of Korean Soju ($16), a fruity and deceptively alcoholic beverage that I consumed throughout the meal in a special little soju bowl.

👍 Verdict: Worth a trip to the burbs.

Every Cleveland neighborhood seems to have its own urban legend. With Halloween approaching, we want to hear yours.

• We're talking supposedly haunted houses, eerie encounters, neighborhood ghost stories and strange local legends that have stuck with you for years.

👻 We want to know: Hit reply and tell us the tale, where it supposedly happened and how you first heard about it.

• We might feature your submission in an upcoming Halloween edition of the newsletter.

🎧 Sam's not crying — YOU'RE CRYING! — as he listens to this interview with Cornell mathematician Steven Strogatz, who discusses the purpose and meaning of life in the age of AI.

📼 Troy is watching "V/H/S Mixtape," the latest installment of a franchise he can't believe is still around.

This newsletter was edited by Tyler Buchanan.