Fishers has canceled this year’s Touch-A-Truck event due to the threat of severe weather.

City officials announced the decision Monday, saying the event was being canceled “out of an abundance of caution” for guests, staff and vendors.

“Due to the risk for severe weather this afternoon, we have made the decision to cancel today’s Touch-A-Truck event,” the city said in its announcement.

The popular family event gives children and families a chance to see, touch and explore vehicles used by city departments and other organizations. It has become a favorite for many families in Fishers.

City officials acknowledged that many families were looking forward to the event, but said safety must come first.

“We know families were looking forward to this event, and we appreciate your understanding as safety remains our top priority,” the city said.

Fishers said the event will not be rescheduled this year. Touch-A-Truck is expected to return in 2027.

City officials are also urging residents to remain weather aware as severe weather remains a possibility this afternoon.

While crews keep pouring concrete on the team’s future home off 96th Street, Cadillac’s Formula 1 dream came within five seconds of its first-ever championship point Sunday in the streets of Monte Carlo — only to have it taken away after the checkered flag.

It was a heartbreaker with local roots. The Cadillac Formula 1 Team, whose $200 million global headquarters is rising right now next to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport in Fishers, looked set to celebrate a milestone when veteran Sergio Pérez crossed the line 10th in a chaotic, red-flag-interrupted Monaco Grand Prix. Tenth place pays one point — the first in team history.

It didn’t last. Stewards penalized Pérez 10 seconds for lining up out of position at the race’s final restart, dropping the Mexican from 10th to 15th and erasing the point. The single marker instead went to Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. For a brand-new outfit clawing for every result, it was a cruel way to end an otherwise encouraging weekend.

The day belonged to teenager Kimi Antonelli, who survived a wild race to take victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Monaco favorite Charles Leclerc crashed out on a safety-car restart in front of his home crowd, one of several shock retirements that scrambled the order and briefly opened the door for Cadillac.

For Hamilton County race fans, the storyline is bigger than one disputed point. Cadillac — General Motors’ factory entry and the 11th team on the F1 grid — has made Fishers the heart of its operation. The 400,000-square-foot campus, designed by Indianapolis-based Ratio Architects and built by Clark Construction, is slated for completion this year and expected to employ roughly 300 engineers, technicians and staff. Eventually, the bulk of the team’s race cars will be designed and built here in central Indiana.

For now, the team runs its 2026 car out of a temporary base in Silverstone, England, while the Fishers facility is finished. But the long-term vision is unmistakable: an American Formula 1 team, with American manufacturing muscle, headquartered minutes from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was a tougher Sunday on the other side of the garage. Veteran Valtteri Bottas, who lined up 20th, never got a clean run at it. Front-brake trouble had dogged the team all weekend, and despite managing the temperatures from the opening lap, the crew couldn’t keep them in check. Bottas was forced to pit and retire — a DNF that capped a frustrating weekend made noisier by swirling rumors about his future, which the Finn flatly dismissed.

The driver lineup still brings instant credibility. Pérez and Bottas arrived with 16 Grand Prix wins and more than 500 starts between them — exactly the kind of experience a debut team needs while it finds its feet. Sunday showed both the promise and the growing pains: fast enough to fight for points, new enough to get caught out by the sport’s unforgiving rulebook and its own teething mechanical gremlins.

The point will come. With a state-of-the-art headquarters taking shape just up the road and a season still unfolding, Cadillac’s first taste of F1 glory feels like a matter of when, not if — and when it happens, Fishers will have a genuine claim to a piece of it.

When Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston of Fishers praised the Chicago Bears’ announcement that they will build a stadium in Hammond, it sounded as if the decision had been made. But at least one expert says we are, at best, in the third quarter of this game, not at the final whistle.

I doubt this is a good deal for Indiana, but I welcome a challenge to any position I take. So I dug in.

Start with the Bears’ own word: “advance.” The board voted to “advance” the Hammond proposal, and the team concedes the exact site is “to be selected.” A Wolf Lake parcel is presumed, but nothing is signed.

Mark Rosentraub, a sports economist at the University of Michigan, called it “the third quarter of this decision — it ain’t over till it’s over.” Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch says his state remains open to a deal, though Illinois lawmakers have adjourned until October.

Huston says the offer mirrors the financing that built Lucas Oil Stadium and kept the Colts in Indianapolis. But that kept an existing team. This is meant to lure one away.

What is Indiana putting up? A 12% tax on stadium tickets, expected to raise about $12 million a year. A doubling of Lake County’s hotel tax, from 5% to 10%. A new 1% food-and-beverage tax in Lake and Porter counties, an estimated $12 million to $18 million combined. And a Northwest Indiana Professional Sports Development Area that captures state and local sales, income and food-and-beverage taxes — even the tax on players’ game-day wages.

Those taxes fall on Lake and Porter county residents and visitors whether or not they attend a game — and the development-area capture redirects revenue that would otherwise flow to Indiana’s general fund.

And there’s this: a renegotiated Toll Road lease would hand Indiana about $700 million for stadium-related infrastructure — in exchange for letting tolls rise at least 1.5% twice a year. In effect, drivers, utilizing the Road, help pay for stadium-area roads.

The research is sobering. A 2023 study in the Journal of Economic Surveys reviewed more than 130 studies from 1974 to 2022 and confirmed a long-standing consensus: pro sports teams and stadiums have “very limited economic impacts.” Even counting civic pride and other non-cash benefits, the authors found the gains “tend to fall well short of covering public outlays.”

Three economists spoke to the Indiana offer. Michael Hicks of Ball State was blunt: “Neither of these proposals offer net benefits to taxpayers.” Moving the Bears within the same metro area is “trivial on net,” he said — the workers and the team are already here. “Tax incentives would just be a gift to the team, not the community.”

Anthony Sindone of Indiana University Northwest said both plans burden “people who have little if anything to do or benefit from a new stadium.” Still, he conceded: “While I personally think it would be cool to have the Bears move to Indiana, the return on the public investment tends to be much less than advertised.”

Not everyone agrees. Pat Obi of Purdue University Northwest calls Indiana’s Lucas Oil-style model “more sensible,” saying it allows “careful projections … and a clearer timeline for repaying” the debt. And Heather Ennis of the Northwest Indiana Forum calls the financing a proven “responsible financial framework” and the Chicago media spotlight “a powerful commercial for Northwest Indiana.”

How have these deals aged? Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008 at about $720 million. The Colts paid $100 million; taxpayers covered $619.6 million — 86%. As of last year, the public still owed more than $543 million, with the debt running to 2037. The old Hoosier Dome was paid off in 2020 — 13 years after it was demolished.

This is “the stadium game” — the threat to move unless one government outbids another. Some money would shift from Illinois to Indiana. But the Bears’ headquarters and practice facility would stay in the Chicago area, and whether the players’ salaries would be taxed in Indiana or Illinois is an open question.

Northwest Indiana has been hit hard by deindustrialization. I know many people in Hammond; they are good people, and if this helps them, God bless them. But whether Indiana’s taxpayers are getting a good deal comes down to how you believe public money should be handled. I have concerns; others see it differently, and I respect that.

The Bears were the first NFL team I followed, before the Colts came to Indy. I’ve laid out the facts as best I know them — not all of them, because no one would finish that piece. I only ask that you weigh them and decide.

It’s your money on the table.

The Fishers Freight lost their fifth consecutive game Saturday night, falling 45-44 in overtime to the Tulsa Oilers at the Fishers Event Center.

The defeat dropped the Freight to 5-6 on the season, while Tulsa improved to 5-5. The final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference remains up for grabs.

The Freight scored a touchdown in overtime, and kicked the extra point.  Tulsa scored a touchdown next, and tallied a two-point conversion to win the game.

It was a bitter loss for Fishers, which trailed from the opening kickoff. Tulsa’s Axel Perez kicked a deuce — sending the ball between the uprights on the kickoff for two points — to make it 2-0 before a single play was run from scrimmage.

The Freight trailed 29-21 at halftime but rallied to take the lead on a Felix Harper touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Davis Black, acquired by Fishers just this week, started the game with Harper nursing a hip injury. After Black threw an interception late in the first half, Coach Dixie Wooten turned to Harper, who promptly marched the offense down the field for a touchdown.

The Freight defense, which played well last week in Jacksonville, struggled often against the Oilers.

Fishers now heads west to face the Arizona Rattlers on Sunday, June 14. The Freight beat Arizona earlier this season at the Fishers Event Center, but wins have been hard to come by lately. To say the Freight badly need a victory would be an understatement.

My twin daughters are now in their early 30s, so it has been a number of years since I personally experienced a high school graduation ceremony. Back then, our family made the trek south to the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum to take in that special moment.

For the second year, graduates of Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern high schools no longer had to travel to Indianapolis for commencement. Instead, the Fishers Event Center once again served as the local venue where graduates crossed the stage, received their diplomas and experienced all the pomp and pageantry that comes with graduation.

There is always a mix of joy and sadness at any commencement ceremony.

There is joy in seeing the high school journey come to an end and watching graduates prepare for the next step in life, whether that means college, the workforce, military service or another path. But there is also some sadness in leaving behind the teachers, staff members and friendships that helped shape the four years of the high school experience.

Both local high schools held their graduation ceremonies this past week. Hamilton Southeastern Schools had photographers on hand to capture some of the moments experienced by graduates, their families and others in attendance.

Here are a few of those moments, as provided by the HSE Schools staff.

Continue reading Graduation Comes Home for Fishers, HSE Seniors →

The road construction season is in full gear and all the major summer projects are ongoing.  The list is long, so I would urge motorists to keep a close eye on the listing for the coming week.

Here is the full report for the week starting Sunday, June 7, as provided by the City of Fishers:

Continue reading Weekly road construction report for the week beginning Sunday, June 7 →

Hamilton County remains one of Indiana’s strongest Republican counties, but it is also changing. Population growth, new residents, shifting demographics and increasingly competitive local races are all part of the political conversation.

My guest on this podcast is Hamilton County Republican Party Chair Mario Massillamany. We talk about whether Hamilton County is becoming more Democratic, how Republicans are responding to a changing electorate, and what local party leaders are watching as the 2026 election cycle takes shape.

We also discuss the upcoming Indiana Republican State Convention in Fort Wayne, where delegates will help decide the party’s nominee for Secretary of State, a contest that has drawn plenty of attention within the GOP.

Massillamany also shares his personal story, including his work as an attorney and how he became involved in local Republican politics.

It is a wide-ranging conversation about politics, Hamilton County’s future, and the challenges facing both major parties in a fast-growing suburban county.

This podcast series is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the podcast at this link or the link below.

The Chicago Bears are headed to the Hoosier State.

The team’s board of directors voted this week to move forward with a new domed stadium in Hammond, ending a five-year stadium saga and positioning one of the NFL’s oldest franchises to play its home games outside Illinois for the first time in its 106-year history. The decision delivers a marquee economic prize to Northwest Indiana and caps a months-long push by state and local leaders to lure the team across the state line.

“We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana and the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across the neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city,” Bears chairman George McCaskey said in a statement. The team said the specific site is still “to be selected,” though the Bears have spent months studying land near Wolf Lake in Hammond, including the city-owned Lost Marsh Golf Course property.

Indiana Leaders Celebrate a “Transformative” Win

State officials moved quickly to claim the victory. Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) issued a statement Friday hailing the announcement.

“I am thrilled the Bears ownership voted to develop a world-class stadium facility in Hammond,” Huston said. “This will be a transformative project for Northwest Indiana, benefiting our entire state. The Bears have been transparent and terrific partners throughout this process.”

Huston credited local officials and Gov. Mike Braun’s administration for sealing the deal.

“Local elected leadership in Northwest Indiana and their constituents have been tremendous partners in making this happen,” he said. “This is a fantastic win for Indiana, and I thank Governor Braun and his leadership team. The Bears join a long line of companies and residents choosing Indiana to invest, grow and pursue opportunity, and I look forward to many more making that choice.”

Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, who has championed the project for months and repeatedly insisted his city’s site was “clean” and shovel-ready, had warned the Bears to act fast. “If July 1 rolls around and Hammond doesn’t know for sure, I don’t think that’s a good sign,” he said earlier in the week. The board’s vote answered him with weeks to spare.

How the Deal Works

Indiana lawmakers cleared the path with remarkable speed. Three months ago, the General Assembly authorized a new stadium authority and Gov. Braun signed the enabling legislation into law, creating the financing framework to build the dome.

Under the arrangement, Indiana would commit roughly $1 billion in public funding, with the state owning the stadium and the Bears leasing it. The team has pledged $2 billion of its own money toward construction. The Bears would keep all revenue the stadium generates and hold an option to buy the building for a nominal sum once the bonds are paid off in about 40 years.

The public share would be repaid through a slate of new and increased taxes tied largely to the stadium and tourism: a local food-and-beverage tax in Lake and Porter counties, a 12% admissions tax on stadium events in Hammond, an increase to Lake County’s hotel tax, and toll revenue. Backers say the structure leans on visitors and event-goers rather than general taxpayers, and point to early projections of billions in total investment, tens of thousands of construction jobs, and a long-term boost to local employment and tax receipts in a region still recovering from decades of steel-industry decline.

The deal is not without critics. Some Northwest Indiana residents have questioned whether the state should put public dollars and bonding capacity behind a privately owned NFL team, and the leading Hammond site sits near former industrial land that environmental regulators have flagged in the past. Supporters counter that the region badly needs the investment. “They have a lot of room because the steel mills have closed. A lot of people are hurting from that,” one retired Chicago firefighter told reporters. “It would definitely benefit the residents from not only Hammond, but Gary and so forth.”

The End of a Five-Year Search — and Illinois’ Loss

For the Bears, Hammond is the destination at the end of a long and winding road. The team submitted a bid for the former Arlington International Racecourse site in suburban Arlington Heights back in 2021 and paid $197.2 million for the 326-acre property in early 2023. But it could never resolve a property-tax fight there, and over the years the search swung from Arlington Heights to a proposed lakefront stadium in Chicago and back again, with other long-shot pitches floated from Gary, Portage, Waukegan and beyond.

Team president and CEO Kevin Warren expanded the search to Northwest Indiana in December, frustrated by the stalemate over Arlington Heights property taxes. Indiana pounced. Illinois lawmakers, by contrast, ran out of time: a last-minute bill that would have let a Cook County municipality create its own stadium financing authority passed the Illinois Senate at 3:39 a.m. on the final night of the session, but the House adjourned roughly 45 minutes later without taking it up. Days later, the Bears’ board made Indiana official.

For Hammond and the wider Calumet Region, the vote turns years of speculation into a generational opportunity — a domed NFL stadium, the construction boom that comes with it, and a national spotlight on Northwest Indiana. As Huston put it, state leaders are betting the Bears are just the beginning.

Fresh off being named the No. 2 best place to live in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Fishers is heading into summer with one of its fullest event calendars yet — and most of it won’t cost a dime. From themed Saturdays at the farmers market to fireworks over Geist Reservoir, the city has stacked the season with concerts, festivals, arts programming and family events running from now through September.

The marquee dates anchor the calendar: Spark!Fishers takes over downtown June 26–27 with a drone show, parade and street festival; free Tuesday-night concerts return to the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater through June and July; and the Fourth of July brings three separate fireworks shows across town. Around those headliners is a steady drumbeat of smaller happenings — adults-only beach nights, a Polynesian lū’au, World Cup watch parties, splash pads, yoga on the sand and a Christmas-in-July pop-up. Here’s the full lineup.

Continue reading Fishers Rolls Out a Packed Summer of Free Concerts, Festivals and Beach Nights →

The Fishers Freight return home Saturday night for a pivotal Indoor Football League matchup against Tulsa, with their playoff hopes very much hanging in the balance.

Fresh off a road trip to Jacksonville, the Freight remain squarely in the postseason hunt. At this point in the season, the path forward is simple: win.

Fishers will be looking for a statement performance before a home crowd at the Fishers Event Center in one of the team’s most important games of the season. The Freight defeated the Oilers in Tulsa on April 18, edging out a 40-38 victory.

The Freight are hoping to start June on a stronger note after a difficult May, when the club suffered four straight losses. Fishers enters Saturday’s game with a 5-5 record, good for fourth place in the Eastern Conference and the final playoff position. Tulsa is right behind at 4-5, making Saturday’s matchup especially important in the conference standings.

The week also brought a significant setback for Fishers. The team announced that wide receiver JT Stokes is likely out for the remainder of the season after suffering an injury in last Saturday’s game at Jacksonville. Stokes had been a key part of the Freight passing attack, and his absence leaves a void the offense will need to fill quickly.

To add depth, Fishers activated wide receiver Jaylen Green this week, giving the receiving corps a fresh option as the team adjusts its rotation. The Freight also added backup quarterback Davis Black to the roster, providing additional insurance behind center for the stretch run.

How quickly Green settles into a role — and whether the offense can replace Stokes’ production by committee — could go a long way toward determining how far this team can go. With little margin for error, a home game against Tulsa is exactly the kind of test a playoff contender needs to pass.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Fishers Event Center. Tickets are available.