Happy Tuesday! 🥫 On this day in 1965, tomato juice became Ohio's state beverage.

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, with a high of 69 and a low of 45.

🗳 Situational awareness: The local teachers union voted no confidence in the Columbus Board of Education over a recent insurance "disaster" that cost the district millions, the Dispatch reports.

• The union wants people to "make their voices heard" at tonight's board meeting.

Happy Axios Social Club day! Here's to good food, new connections and a fun night out. Enjoy! Sign up to hear about our next one.

Today’s newsletter is 1,032 words — a 4-minute read.

Fall in Ohio doesn't mess around. For the next two months, the state's calendar is packed with fall festivities that you can reach from Central Ohio in a day trip.

Our picks:

🔪 Halloween Haunt at Kings Island

The draw: Kings Island goes full horror movie after dark, turning the amusement park into a collection of haunted mazes and scare zones without shutting down many of its biggest coasters.

What's new: The 2026 Haunt marks a return to Hollywood horror, including a maze starring "Friday the 13th" villain Jason Voorhees. It's a notable throwback for a park that once leaned heavily into movie properties during its Paramount era.

If you go:

• 🗓️ Select nights through Oct. 31 in Mason.

💡 BLINK Cincinnati

The draw: Cincinnati's urban core becomes a massive outdoor art gallery, with projection mapping splashed across buildings, new murals, interactive installations and light displays.

• BLINK spans more than 35 city blocks and into N0rthern Kentucky over four nights and bills itself as the nation's largest free public art event.

If you go:

• 🗓️ Oct. 8-11, 7-11pm.
• 💰 Admission is free.

🔥 Ten Kings of Hell

The draw: The Cleveland Museum of Art is going to hell this fall — artistically speaking. A new exhibition explores vivid medieval Korean visions of the afterlife, where 10 kings judge the dead and determine what happens next.

The experience: The museum is leaning into the spooky timing, with special programming including an Oct. 21 "Make and Sip" inspired by the exhibition and a Nov. 6 K-pop dance party dubbed "K-Pop Inferno."

If you go:

• 🗓️ Oct. 11-Jan. 3 at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

🎃 Circleville Pumpkin Show

The draw: About 25 miles south of Columbus, a town of roughly 12,000 swells with more than 400,000 visitors for giant pumpkins, parades, rides and nearly every pumpkin-flavored food imaginable.

Flashback: The tradition dates to 1903 and is now billed by organizers as Ohio's oldest festival.

By the numbers: More than 100,000 pounds of pumpkins, squash and gourds go on display, while visitors consume about 23,000 pumpkin pies and more than 100,000 pumpkin doughnuts.

If you go:

• 🗓️ Oct. 21-24 in downtown Circleville.
• 💰 Admission is free.

💀 Día de Muertos

The draw: Cleveland's Detroit Shoreway neighborhood fills with elaborate altars, folk art, Latin food, music and a procession of skulls and skeletons for one of the city's most visually striking cultural celebrations.

If you go:

• 🗓️ Nov. 7, 11am-10pm, at Cleveland Public Theatre and the surrounding area. The signature "Skulls & Skeletons" procession starts at 3:30pm.
• 💰 Admission is free.

The Blue Jackets are back, but a voice many have come to associate with the team is now covering the team in his own new capacity.

Driving the news: Former play-by-play broadcaster Bob McElligott recently launched Clear Breakaway, a website featuring pregame and postgame Q&As, podcasts and other analysis.

What they're saying: "I've heard from so many people who told me they listened to my broadcasts and my podcasts — while driving an 18-wheeler, cleaning a school at night, working third shift at a factory," McElligott said in a news release.

• "They listened on the way to the arena or on the way home. I want to talk more with them, to hear what they have to say."

Catch up quick: McElligott spent 17 years as radio broadcaster until Columbus cut ties with him this offseason as part of a shift toward streaming games on the Blue Jackets Hockey Network.

• The team is now simulcasting the TV broadcast on its radio network.

💭 Tyler's thought bubble: I still wish McElligott was on the mic, but it's nice at least to see him land on his feet.

• Hopefully the new platform is rewarded with a competitive season.

💊 German pharmaceutical company Bayer's planned $2.2 billion facility in New Albany will be Ohio's largest international healthcare project ever, Gov. Mike DeWine says. (Statehouse News Bureau)

✅ The new Downtown Discovery Pass program aims to bring visitors back to the Gay Street District that's dealt with disruptive construction.

• Visitors can earn rewards like gift cards, art or a tote bag. (Columbus Underground)

🎸 Country music star Dierks Bentley popped into Dublin's Bristol Republic last week to surprise the crowd with a few songs. (614 Magazine)

❌ Springfield's Navistar truck plant closed and laid off 1,400 workers last week, enough to "erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton" area. (WOSU)

🇭🇹 Five Haitians from Springfield have been deported back to Haiti since their legal status was removed July 27. (Ohio Capital Journal)

If you envision tiptoeing through tulips or dancing among daffodils next spring, now might be the time to get those bulbs in the ground.

Why it matters: Spring-flowering bulbs need cool soil but also enough time to establish roots before the ground freezes. Planting too early or too late can hurt their chances for a strong bloom.

Zoom in: The timing largely follows climate, according to Axios' analysis of Cooperative Extension, a nationwide network of state university-based programs that provides research-backed local advice.

• In colder states, particularly in the North, gardeners are racing against the ground freeze and generally should plant by early October.

Yes, but: Planting windows can vary widely within states that have big differences in elevation, coastal influence or winter temperatures.

• Bulb type matters, too: Daffodils generally tolerate warmer climates better than tulips.

The bottom line: For Ohio and much of the country, October is peak bulb-planting season.

Thanks to Tyler Buchanan for editing today's newsletter.

Our picks:

📴 Alissa is off.

🪟 Andrew is enjoying windows-open weather.

🤷‍♂️ Tyler thinks Ohio needs a better state beverage.