WFHB Local News Features

A local chapter of the environmental protest group, Extinction Rebellion, has three demands for lawmakers to ensure carbon emissions drop to net zero within the next six years. WFHB Correspondent Katrine Bruner discusses the Extinction Rebellion organization with the founding XR Bloomington members. The Bloomington chapter of the Extinction Rebellion Organization began in the early summer of 2019. The group …

John Armstrong is the Chief Operating Officer of Pigasus Pictures, a locally owned and based production company. Pigasus Pictures works with a mind of community focused production, dabbling in many forms of outreach to the community. They recently had two films in the Heartland Film Festival. In today’s community report, corespondent Sydney Foreman talks with Armstrong about the Heartland film …

Bobby Overman is in her second year coordinating the Human Library event at the Monroe County Public Library. WFHB corespondent Jake Jacobson talked to Overman to learn more about the project, which is focused on creating dialogue and understanding between people.

Markus Dickinson is the vice president of New Leaf – New Life, a volunteer run organisation that offers programs both inside and outside the Monroe County Correctional Center, that promote successful reentry into society. In today’s community report, WFHB’s Sydney Foreman talks with Dickinson about teaching linguistics to inmates.

Citizen Climate Lobby is a grassroots environmental group working to influence congressional leaders to create a bipartisan policy to slow climate change. WFHB Correspondent Sarah Vaughan spoke with two volunteer lobbyists from CCL’s local chapter, to learn about their efforts to pass legislation that would create a national carbon fee and dividend program. House Resolution 763, the 2019 Energy Innovation …

Hilary Fleck was awarded a May Wright Sewall Fellowship grant by Indiana Humanities earlier this year. Fleck, the collections manager at the Monroe County History Center, is researching the role of local women in the lead-up to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the right of women to vote in all elections. Next year will …

Internships are a great way for students to gain experience in the field in which they hope to build a career, but most are unpaid. At what point is it illegal for someone to work without pay? In today’s community report, Indiana University professor Kenneth Glenn Dau-Schmidt tells WFHB’s Sydney Foreman what an unpaid internship should look like, and how …

Financial advisers hired by the City of Bloomington have concluded the City can financially support funding a proposed Convention Center expansion with bonds. As currently proposed, a 60 thousand square foot expansion would cost roughly 44 million dollars, and would include a 30 thousand square foot exhibit hall, and renovating the existing convention center. A food and beverage tax was …

The Bloomington City Council met last night to discuss a previous decision they had made concerning a proposed student development.  Some council members expressed reservations about re-hearing the proposal. Council member Dorothy Granger was the first to express her thoughts.  Other council members, such as Chris Sturbaum, hoped that approving this proposal would help rehabilitate the area with sidewalks and …

An ethanol processing facility in Cloverdale is closing after just eight years in operation. The owner of the ethanol bioprocessing facility in Putnam County says U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decisions are to blame for the facility’s shuttering. POET LLC says hundreds of local jobs will be impacted by the plant closing and the company will no longer process over 30 …