WFHB Local News Features

Last Month, President Trump released a budget blue print that would cut grant funding that drives a multitude of local programs, including those administered by the City of Bloomington’s department of Housing and Neighborhood Development, or HAND. Last month we explored how those proposed funding cuts would impact seniors in our community. This month, reporter Sarah Vaughan spoke with HAND …

Bloomington author Annette Oppenlander was a success in finance and banking as well as public relations and then, late in life, realized she loved writing. She’s authored three young adult science fiction fantasies and this month has released her fourth novel, a coming of age love story set in World War II Germany entitled, “Surviving the Fatherland.” Much of the …

For the past seven years, Christopher Haynes has led meetings in a special dorm at the Monroe County Jail. The dorm is set aside for inmates with addiction issues. Haynes spends an hour a week talking with inmates on subjects including meditation and spirituality. Participants have described activities ranging from the dissection of Leonard Cohen lyrics, to discussions based on …

The Bloomington City Council has approved a resolution urging state lawmakers to give them back the right to regulate guns. Since 2011, the state of Indiana has prohibited local governments, such as the city of Bloomington, from regulating the use of firearms. In a meeting last week, members of the city council denounced that prohibition, as well as the state …

A recent study from researchers at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI indicates the opioid epidemic may be even larger than we thought. The study, published recently in the Journal of Urban Health, looked at opioid-related overdose deaths in Marion County from 2010 to 2015. The study showed decreases in deaths due to prescription opiates, but increases …

With the April 15th deadline for submissions fast approaching, this year’s fourth Middle Coast Film Festival is taking shape. Launched in 2014 by founders Jess Levandoski and Chelsea Sanders, the Fest brings independent movies from around the world to Bloomington and it shows the world what Bloomington filmmakers can do. Programmer Jess Levandoski and business manager Jess Reed talk about …

Many Indiana University students and staff have taken note of a character often referred to simply as the Bagpipe Guy. But few know why he stands, day after day, playing his bagpipes in Dunn Meadow. So reporter Victoria Ziege tracked him down to find out. In the process, she found there was a great deal more to the strange man playing the bagpipes on IU’s campus. …

Full time enrollment has reached an all-time high at IU Bloomington. With the large numbers of students coming in, dorms are at capacity and sometimes overflowing. Jade Shoppell reports on the University’s enrollment issue.

Tomorrow morning a committee in the Indiana House of Representatives is scheduled to discuss Senate Bill 309, a piece of legislation that worries solar energy advocates. For today’s WFHB community report, News Director Joe Crawford spoke with the executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, Jesse Kharbanda. We bring you a portion of their conversation now.

The Trump administration’s budget blueprint released last week would ax grants that help fund a multitude of local programs serving the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. The cuts are part of a plan to add 54 billion dollars to the nation’s defense budget. On the chopping block are a three- billion-dollar national energy assistance program known as LIHEAP, and …