Big Talk

The two-term mayor of the far-northern Indiana city has announced he will not run for reelection in 2019. Buttigieg gained national attention when he ran for Democratic National Committee chair in 2017 and was even mentioned as a potential party nominee for president in 2020. His decision not to seek a third term has led to speculation he will announce …

The longtime, plainspoken Perry Township trustee, Combs is a former schoolteacher who has also conducted classes behind state prison walls. A true party loyalist, he calls himself both a Roosevelt Democrat and an adherent of Jeffersonian democracy. His nickname came about when he left the US Army and took up fishing while looking for direction in his life.

George Pinney helped start up the musical theater degree program at Indiana University’s Department of Theatre, Drama & Contemporary Dance. Throughout his 30-year career at IU, he nurtured talented performers who’ve gone on to become mainstays on Broadway and stages around the world. Invariably described as “beloved,” Pinney credits his ear for his success as a teacher. His workshop musical …

Bloomington’s best-known figure in the Black Lives Matter movement, Vauhxx Booker, oddly enough started out life burdened by a profound speech impediment. He’s overcome that to become the spokesperson and the public face of the local BLM branch. He’s earned front page newspaper coverage, first disrupting Mayor John Hamilton’s 2018 State of the City speech, then a Bloomington city council …

Scared and desperate, Debra Morrow walked through the front door of Middle Way House a decade and a half ago. Since that day, Morrow has created a new life for herself and her kids, earning a college degree, rising through the ranks at the domestic abuse resource center, and flowering as a whole human. Now she runs the entire operation. Morrow …

He pulls no punches. Outspoken Indiana University political science professor Jeffrey C. Isaac joins host Michael Glab to riff on the most ballyhooed mid-term election since the Republican Revolution in 1994. Were the results a repudiation of the Donald Trump administration or did the sitting president’s party strengthen an already rock-hard base? And what does this Year of the Women …

She became enchanted with the idea of cohousing years ago and eventually helped start groups for people who might be interested in buying homes in the “intentional community.” Now Marion Sinclair will see her dream become a reality as building contractor Loren Wood will begin grading and excavating the land for the development on South Maxwell Street within weeks. Both …

A former high school math teacher, Loren Wood discovered his love for building homes during his summer vacations and eventually started his own business, Loren Wood Builders. Several years ago, he was contacted by members of the Bloomington Cohousing Project group to help them build their dream neighborhood, a car-free, shared-amenities, tight-knit community where neighbors would know each other, share …

Inspired to action by the contentious 2016 presidential election, Sarah Perfetti, Chelsea Sanders, and Kate Keith staged the first Be Golden Women’s Empowerment Conference in Bloomington in 2017. The second annual international gathering happens this weekend at venues all around town. The Be Golden conference seeks to include women and allies from all walks of life and from groups and …

After serving in Vietnam with the United States Marines and earning a Purple Heart, teenaged Marc Haggerty came back to Indiana and immediately got involved with antiwar protests. Since then he has taken up a variety of causes including voting rights, housing, the environment, prisoners’ rights, and many others. In recent years he has been particularly outspoken about conditions at …