WFHB Local News Features

A report on Downtown Safety and Civility is now under review by a mayoral task force. The Community Justice and Mediation Center, or CJAM, produced the report after undertaking a three-stage public deliberation process to examine issues such as panhandling, homelessness, and substance abuse in public places that led some community members to feel unsafe. One of CJAM’s public forums …

Longtime Bloomington journalist and author Douglas Wissing has been described as an adventurer. His three tours as an embedded reporter in Afghanistan have provided him with enough adventures to last a lifetime. He’s described what he’s seen in two books on America’s sixteen-year battle in history’s chronic battleground. His latest book, “Hopeless but Optimistic: Journeying Through America’s Endless War in …

Last week, WFHB’s LGBTQ public affairs show, BloomingOUT, hosted a conversation with Indiana University law professor Steve Sanders. Sanders begins by addressing the Trump administration’s reversal of a directive related to transgender access to bathrooms.

Local entrepreneur Joe Davis is the creator of the Community Carbon Exchange, or CCX. Davis says carbon-saving actions like carpooling and walking, as well as adjustments in food and utility consumption create a carbon offset that can be sold. Individuals and companies with larger carbon footprints can then buy that offset as a way to help mitigate their own impact …

The school board at the Monroe County Community School Corporation is scheduled to vote tomorrow night on a contract that would affect the jobs of dozens of bus drivers. The proposed agreement has drawn public criticism from some local residents, including some of the drivers. Late last week the Bloomington Solidarity Network released a report describing how the contract could …

Born in Vietnam just after the fall of Saigon, Thuy Bogart and her family left that war-torn land and lived in a refugee camp in Malaysia for a year. They came to America in 1980. When she grew up, she fell in love with tango, the steamy South American couples dance. She met her husband and future musical accompanist, Ben, …

Indiana nonprofits are lobbying state legislators on two Senate bills that would impact the ability of Hoosiers to receive SNAP benefits. That’s the federally funded supplemental nutrition assistance program formerly known as food stamps. Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, the Indiana Association of United Ways, the Indiana Township Association, Inc., and the Institute for Working Families are among a dozen organizations working …

Residents of a low-income neighborhood in southern Indiana say the city government is forcing them out of their homes to clear the way for a private developer.

An actor, playwright, and proud jokester, Emily Goodson has made her mark in Bloomington theater. She’s written the new musical-comedy, “Calling All Kates,” now in pre-production at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. She and her husband, Cardinal Stage Company managing director Gabe Gloden, have chased the theater life around the country and now call our town home. Goodson once played an …

Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer has risen up as a figure in local politics in the past few years. She spends much of her time advocating for public education issues.  She took this to the next level during the fall when she decided to run for a seat on the school board. Reporter Katelyn Haas tells this story of political engagement in Bloomington. …