Indianapolis, IN
Central Indiana’s Top 10 stories of 2025, from sports to Trump
2025 in Motion: Relive Hoosiers’ top moments of 2025 seconds at a time
From welcoming a new governor to cheering the Pacers’ near title run, 2025 delivered unforgettable moments and IndyStar was there.
The onslaught of news in 2025 tested everyone’s capacity to absorb and retain information. So to put the year in perspective, we’ve rounded up our Top 10 storylines of the year.
The highlights: The inauguration of a new president and a new Indiana governor profoundly reshaped public policy, from immigration to education to property tax reform. A scandal in the Indianapolis mayor’s office and a longstanding conflict over downtown crime inflamed local politics. And every Indianapolis professional sports team showed both incredible promise and incredibly bad luck.
Here are the 10 biggest topics IndyStar covered in 2025.
10. State lawmakers tighten grip on education, from K-12 to college
From K-12 to higher education, Republican lawmakers exerted control over Indiana’s schools this year in sweeping ways that alarmed critics.
Closest to home, the state legislature created the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance to improve coordination between Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools. That group recommended changes that would move some control away from the elected IPS school board.
The legislative session also proved controversial for the state’s colleges.
Six public universities cut or consolidated about 400 degree programs in response to a state law targeting majors with lower enrollment. Another law will subject tenured faculty to “productivity” quotas that could lead to termination. And lawmakers also gave Indiana Gov. Mike Braun sole authority to appoint Indiana University trustees — a power he swiftly used to replace alumni-backed board members.
9. IU and Purdue under fire for free-speech issues
FIRE review ranks Indiana University and Purdue in free speech
Indiana University is one of the worst public universities in the country for free speech, according to a national First Amendment organization.
Ahead of the intensely hyped Big Ten championship between IU and Ohio State University Dec. 6, an airplane circling downtown Indianapolis trailed a large banner bearing these words: “Indiana University hates free speech.”
The sign linked to a website run by a leading First Amendment nonprofit that lambasted IU for conflicts over freedom of expression. With the hiring of a new First Amendment reporter this year, IndyStar has written extensively about those issues.
This September, IU ranked as the nation’s worst public college for free speech following the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests in spring 2024. In October, IU fired the student newspaper’s staff adviser, who filed a lawsuit arguing his constitutional rights were violated.
IU was not alone in drawing backlash over its treatment of student media. Many criticized Purdue University’s decision to stop distributing the independent student newspaper across campus. The university also told the longstanding publication, known as The Purdue Exponent, to stop using the name “Purdue” in its masthead.
8. The Fever run hot — even without Caitlin Clark
The Las Vegas Aces clawed past the Indiana Fever in the WNBA semifinals and went on to win the championship. But this year showed that Indianapolis has become a center of gravity in women’s professional basketball.
The Fever were a hair’s breadth away from vying for the title, despite competing without the league’s brightest young star, Caitlin Clark. Because this is Indianapolis sports in 2025, where all blessings come with curses, Clark was sidelined by a groin injury in mid-July and never returned to the floor.
The league signaled the Fever’s prominence by granting Indianapolis the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game, a first for the city. Tens of thousands of fans flooded downtown streets to see why local leaders are pitching Indy as “the women’s sports capital of the world.”
7. Downtown violence inflames familiar debates
Prosecutor responds to Mike Braun post over Mark Sanchez investigation
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears responds to criticism of Indy leaders amid the Mark Sanchez stabbing investigation.
Long-simmering discord over crime between the Republican-led Indiana Statehouse and Indianapolis’ Democratic leaders boiled over this year when a mass shooting and a high-profile stabbing shook downtown Indy.
After two teenagers were killed and five other young people were injured in a mass shooting downtown during the wee hours of July 5, the head of the city’s police union swiftly called for state leaders to intervene in local law enforcement — an idea that Braun entertained while Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett batted it away.
Months later, top state Republicans including Braun and Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith saw a salient opportunity to decry downtown violence when former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez was stabbed Oct. 4 while visiting to call a Colts game.
But as more details emerged, it became clear that Sanchez, then 38, had drunkenly beaten the 69-year-old man who eventually stabbed him after a dispute over parking, according to police. He was arrested and now faces felony charges in the ongoing case.
Braun and Beckwith deleted their tweets. The man Sanchez assaulted filed a lawsuit against him and his then-employer two days after the attack. In November, Sanchez lost his job at Fox Sports.
6. Jim Irsay’s death and the Colts’ unlikely rise
IndyStar’s initial report on longtime Colts owner Jim Irsay’s death at age 65 described him as “the man who led the Colts out of irrelevancy and made Indianapolis into a football city.”
It’s fitting that in the fall following Irsay’s death, the Colts honored that legacy by beginning the season 8-2 — the team’s best 10-game start since the 2009-10 season, the last time they reached the Super Bowl.
The Colts’ rise came during a breakout year for quarterback Daniel Jones, a player whose unglamorous way of getting the job done made him an apt vessel for Indianapolis. And then, because this is Indianapolis sports in 2025, the team’s leader tore his Achilles.
But Irsay’s impact reaches far beyond the team’s on-field record.
His family’s signature initiative, Kicking the Stigma, has spent more than $25 million to raise awareness about mental health issues and fund organizations focused on treatment and research. His philanthropy is on display across downtown Indianapolis at the Irsay Family YMCA, Riley Hospital for Children and the Colts Canal Playspace.
“I’ve done everything, with the grace of God, that was asked of me,” Irsay once told IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel. “And all that was asked of me was to do God’s will and not my will. To try to follow that image of love as best as I could.”
5. AI may be here to stay, but residents push back anyway
Six years after state lawmakers passed sweeping tax breaks to lure data centers to Indiana, the backlash reached a crescendo in 2025 as new projects kept popping up.
Business titans say hyperscale data centers are needed to power transformative artificial intelligence. The largest tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars replacing open fields with these hulking facilities to get ahead in the AI race. Resisting progress, they argue, is futile.
Many Hoosier residents and a growing number of politicians reject that logic. Opponents view the centers as noisy, unsightly and sprawling neighbors that require enormous amounts of electricity and water yet don’t create many local jobs.
Neighbors in Indy’s Franklin Township banded together to stop the conversion of family farms into a Google data center campus. Similar anti-tech fervor has since erupted in response to planned data centers in Martindale-Brightwood, Decatur Township and Pike Township.
It may be true that artificial intelligence is here to stay. But aggrieved neighbors won’t sit out the fight over where data centers are built anytime soon.
4. New governor’s push to cut property taxes squeezes local governments
When Braun became Indiana’s new governor this January, he emphasized that cutting property taxes was his No. 1 legislative priority.
The result of his efforts, Senate Enrolled Act 1, will save most homeowners up to $300 on their property tax bills and slash taxes for businesses. But the response to SEA 1 from local governments has been overwhelmingly negative, as communities prepare to go without millions in expected tax revenue over the coming years.
Indianapolis leaders say they face a $60 million drop in tax revenue projections through 2028 because of the new law. Hamilton County officials have paused plans for a domestic violence shelter. Carmel leaders cut arts funding and their Noblesville peers postponed trail improvements. Indiana school districts — expected to miss out on more than $700 million in property tax revenue through 2028 — are turning to voters to pass tax referendums to plug the gaps.
In order to maintain quality of life, cities and towns could be all but forced to impose new income taxes that offset some of the property tax savings. Otherwise, leaders say they risk falling behind in funding the amenities — schools, public safety, parks and transit — that make people want to live in their communities.
3. Pacers’ unforgettable playoff run ends with a gut punch
The 2024-25 Indiana Pacers gave us so many unforgettable moments.
Here’s one: In a room full of fans at Ralston’s on Mass Ave, I stood tensely as the Pacers trailed the Knicks by two with a few seconds left in regulation of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
A video from that night shows everyone watching raptly as Tyrese Haliburton dribbled back out to the 3-point line to shoot what we all thought was a game-winner. My hands were aloft in some sort of worship. We all leaned forward as Haliburton’s last-second shot careened off the back of the rim, hung in the air and — as if blessed by the basketball gods and Reggie Miller, who was calling that night’s game — dropped straight through the net.
It turned out the shot only tied the game. But the Pacers won in overtime and then claimed the series 4-2, so the memory remains pure.
How often in life are we moved to involuntarily jump for joy, to shout in pure amazement, to hug our loved ones and high-five the nearest strangers?
In 2025, Haliburton and the Pacers gave fans more than our fair share of such moments. We crowded into stadiums and bars and momentarily forgot ourselves while we witnessed something miraculous.
But remember: This is Indianapolis sports in 2025.
About a month later, Haliburton tore his Achilles seven minutes into Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Thunder — a game that any Hoosier will tell you the Pacers were poised to win and bring home the franchise’s first NBA championship.
Adrift without Haliburton, the Pacers will be lucky to win 30 games in the 2025-26 season, let alone make the playoffs. As I write this in early December, the Thunder are 24-1. So it goes.
But we will keep watching, because the Pacers taught us time and time again this year not to lose faith. You might miss something miraculous.
2. Hogsett administration weathers multiple scandals
Tony Cook and Peter Blanchard on their reporting of Mayor Joe Hogsett
Indy Star reporter Tony Cook and Mirror Indy reporter Peter Blanchard talk to Mirror Indy’s Ibby Ahmed about reporting on Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett.
New investigations into the Hogsett administration this year only deepened the fallout from IndyStar’s 2024 reporting on how multiple women accused his former right-hand man Thomas Cook of sexual misconduct and abuse — all under the mayor’s watch.
An October IndyStar/Mirror Indy investigation found that Hogsett ignored conflicts of interest involving a prohibited relationship between Cook and a former top city official, Scarlett Andrews. After Cook left the city to work for a law firm, the agency Andrews led recommended millions of dollars in city incentives to Cook’s developer clients.
Months earlier, an outside law firm found that the mayor allowed Cook to resign quietly rather than be fired after he learned of Cook’s covert relationship with Andrews. Around the same time, an IndyStar investigation revealed that Hogsett himself sent late-night and personal texts to multiple Cook accusers, who said the messages made them uncomfortable.
Through all of this, Hogsett has refused to step down, despite calls for his resignation by five councilors. The mayor has stood behind his administration’s process for reviewing economic incentives and pledged to update sexual harassment policies. Councilors are still debating which harassment reforms to mandate.
1. Indiana Republicans’ embrace — and rejection — of Trump
From the time President Donald Trump took office Jan. 20, he’s flooded the zone with new policies.
Indiana Republicans embraced the president’s mass deportation efforts and slashed DEI language in state policies. The Miami Correctional Facility became an ICE detention facility, the “Speedway Slammer.” Trump’s directives ran the gamut, affecting agriculture, health research, health insurance, food assistance, clean energy programs and the arts.
But in December, Senate Republicans rejected Trump on the national stage by refusing his demand to redraw congressional maps to eliminate Indiana’s only two Democratic seats.
From the start, critics condemned mid-cycle redistricting as a brazen suppression of liberal voters in Indiana’s most diverse communities. Ultimately, facing down death threats and the specter of Trump-backed primary challengers, most Senate Republicans voted against a new map.
On the cusp of the 250-year-anniversary of the United States, Hoosiers twice this year protested on the lawn of the Indiana Statehouse with a topical message: “No Kings.”
Trump supporters see that message as a hysterical overreaction. Trump opponents see it as an urgent cry to resist tyranny.
Here’s what both groups believe: We’ve just lived through the first year of a presidency that will change our nation’s trajectory.
Email Indianapolis City Hall Reporter Jordan Smith at JTSmith@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @jordantsmith09 and Bluesky @jordanaccidentally.bsky.social.
Anthony Richardson giveth, and Anthony Richardson taketh away.
That’s been the story of the former fourth overall draft selection’s short career thus far, with massive highs and lows defining the quarterback’s NFL career through three seasons.
But during the Indianapolis Colts‘ 2026 preseason opener against the New England Patriots, Anthony Richardson wasn’t perfect, but he was more good than bad, and that’s all you can ask for at this point.
Richardson has been cleared from his season-ending orbital eye injury for months, but his training camp showing entering preseason play has been less than ideal and brought concern that he’ll never fully recover.
However, in the Colts’ aforementioned preseason opener, Richardson appeared to have turned a corner on what had been an unfortunate 2026 campaign prior.
AR Settles In
Anthony Richardson needed a strong showing in the Colts’ preseason opener after an uninspired training camp showing up to this point. He seemingly had no connection with any of his backup passcatchers and had constant snap issues throughout practice, and was trending in the wrong direction.
After displaying some poor tendencies early on against the Patriots that resulted in multiple turnovers, Richardson settled in and looked the best he has all offseason.
Richardson’s aforementioned two turnovers, a fumble and an interception, were both poor plays on his part, but the interception, while not the best ball, was more than catchable, but bounced off and fell into Patriots cornerback Kindle Vildor’s hands.
Instead of letting his early struggles get the best of him, Richardson rebounded in a big way to close out the first half. He delivered two promising drives to end the half, scoring on a red zone rush in the first, before delivering a six-play, 49-yard, 28-second drive that set up a 61-yard end-of-half field goal attempt.
Richardson got the first half of tonight’s preseason matchup, whereas Leonard was dealt clean-up duties, and the two will flip in next week’s game against the Atlanta Falcons. Naturally, this meant he was with the second-team unit while Leonard rolled with the reserves, but still, it was an overall impressive showing.
In one half against the New England Patriots, Anthony Richardson went 11-14 (78.5%) for 145 yards (10.4 average), 1 passing touchdown, and 1 interception through the air, while also adding a team-high 53 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown, and 1 fumble lost on six carries.
Richardson undoubtedly looked the best he has throughout the preseason and has given himself a real shot at the Colts’ QB2 opening.
AR’s Future in Colts’ Offense
The Indianapolis Colts allowed Anthony Richardson to seek a trade throughout the offseason, but after no suitors came calling, he returned to finish out his rookie contract with the team that took a shot on him in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Head coach Shane Steichen has preached consistency in the Colts’ uninspired QB2 battle between Anthony Richardson and Riley Leonard, and the former answered those demands despite struggling early.
“The guy that’s going to be most consistent is going to win that job,” Colts’ head coach Shane Steichen said after training camp practice last week. “Those guys are battling. It’s back and forth right now. Obviously we will grade the tape, go through it and get better every day.”
Yes, it’s not ideal that the Colts’ former fourth-overall pick is battling their recent sixth-round pick for a backup role, but this is the reality, and Richardson showed up when he needed to most.
Richardson’s subpar training camp showing suggested that he’d need a big turnaround in preseason play to earn the Colts’ backup quarterback role beneath Daniel Jones, and so far, he’s stepping up to the challenge.
Who knows, Richardson may not only win the Colts’ QB2 opening, but he may force Shane Steichen to utilize his legs in the red zone during the regular season.
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FOXBORO — While the New England Patriots tied with the Indianapolis Colts 13-13 in Thursday evening’s preseason opener, the game was one swing-of-the-leg away from going in New England’s favor.
In the waning moments of the matchup, the Patriots’ offense — led by rookie Behren Morton — drove downfield to set up a 49-yard field goal attempt for second-year kicker Andy Borregales.
The 23-year-old pushed it wide left, his third miss of the day on five attempts.
Borregales’ night began with a 40-yard make on New England’s opening drive of the game. In the final minute of the first quarter, he pulled a 56-yarder left of the goal posts. He drilled his next attempt from 52-yards out, but followed it up with misses to the left on a 55-yarder and the 49-yard go-ahead attempt.
Head coach Mike Vrabel, who is no stranger to kicker mishaps, was asked about Borregales’ following New England’s draw with Indianapolis.
“We’re going to have mistakes. In everything we do, we just need to be able to come back,” he said. “We need to be able to bounce back, and we need to be able to answer. Guys are going to drop a pass. Guys are going to miss a block. We’re going to miss a kick.
“But you just have to not let those things pile up, and Andy’s been really good with that, and I would anticipate him getting back to work and really starting to focus, and maybe it was a footwork thing or trying to overswing.”
“It Is Important That We Make All Our Field Goals”
Vrabel has a history of kicker difficulties dating back to his time with the Tennessee Titans. In his six seasons as the organization’s head coach, he had a different kicker lead the team in field goal attempts in five of them.
“If we make kicks, we will have the same kicker,” Vrabel said on July 27. “It is important that we make all our field goals … But obviously, having Andy make the type of big kicks that he made last year, we felt very comfortable having him back.”
Last season, Borregales connected on 27 of his 32 field goal attempts and finished the year by connecting on 59-consecutive extra point attempts (including playoffs). Thursday was a stark change of pace from the kicker’s impressive rookie year.
“I don’t have a message (for Borregales),” Vrabel said postgame. “I mean, we’re expecting to make them. It’s pro football. (The Colts are) banging them in from 60 yards. They’ve got two kickers on the roster. So, you know, Andy knows we have to make those field goals.”
Vrabel mentioned the team will discuss potentially bringing in competition for Borregales, who is currently the sole kicker on the roster. But for now, New England’s head coach remains assured in his kicker.
“I have confidence in Andy,” Vrabel said. “You want to be able to make those, and I think we got in a position to win the football game, and you want to be able to make them.”
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Indianapolis, IN
Mike Vanderjagt named head coach of Continental Football League’s Indianapolis Capitols
The Indianapolis Capitols are less than a year away from their inaugural season in the Continental Football League. On Thursday, they announced their new head coach and general manager, a familiar name for Indianapolis football fans:
Mike Vanderjagt.
During his playing career, Vanderjagt spent eight seasons with the Colts as their place kicker before Adam Vinatieri took over the role in 2006, following a disappointing playoff loss to the Steelers in the 2005 AFC Divisional Round. Vanderjagt missed a 46-yard field goal with 21 seconds left in the 21-18 loss.
Vanderjagt signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006 but was release in Week 12, ending his NFL playing career.
Now, Vanderjagt returns to the field, but this time he’ll have on a headset.
The Indianapolis Capitols are set to join the Continental Football League as a 2027 member club. Previously champions of the 1969 Continental Cup, the Capitols are set to rejoin the league after being away for over 50 years. Grand Park in Westfield is set to be the club’s home this upcoming season.
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