WGLT's Sound Ideas

Leaders from the Bloomington-Normal YMCA recently attended national advocacy days in Washington, D.C., meeting with the offices of U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood, a Republican, and Eric Sorensen, a Democrat. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady has expressed skepticism about the focus of the annual One Voice lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., to lobby lawmakers and agencies to fund community projects. In this interview with WGLT's Charlie Schlenker Brady says the city already has gone its own way, in part by sending its representatives out a day before the One Voice trip to stump for projects not on the communitywide list. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The head of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council has submitted his resignation. Patrick Hoban, who has led the EDC for six years, said on his LinkedIn page that he is transitioning to a job as an economic development manager at Ameren. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloomington-based singer-songwriter Cody Diekhoff, known as Chicago Farmer, was in Colorado Springs promoting a new album when the pandemic hit. He and his band, the Fieldnotes, packed up and went home. Diekhoff said he wasn't terribly eager to make another record after that. Six years later, Homeaid is here, dropping March 6 on vinyl, CD and streaming platforms. The band returns to the Castle Theater to promote the album on March 28. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Consultants will present a final recommendation to the Unit 5 School Board next week on how best to balance class sizes. One Unit 5 board member who serves on the district's enrollment planning committee said there are several factors the board will consider in realigning its schools. School Board Vice President Stan Gozur noted four of the district’s schools have mobile classrooms because they are overcrowded and the district is monitoring two other buildings that are approaching capacity. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After finishing long planned renovations and restoring old programs after the pandemic, the Bloomington Public Library [BPL] shows no signs of slowing down its progress. Now, the library is undergoing a new strategic plan. Jeanne Hamilton, director of BPL, said the library is ready to start its next chapter. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know the voices, and you know the stories. But behind every story on WGLT is a person who calls this community home just like you do. The Meet the Newsroom series pulls back the curtain to introduce you to the team that makes WGLT possible. The series continues with reporter Joe Deacon. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new book has a chapter on McLean County's use of restorative justice. Suzanne Montoya and Kevin Jones wrote about their efforts using listening circles to connect members of the community with differing views after a police officer shot and killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A number of Chiddix Junior High parents are frustrated by what little information the Unit 5 school district has shared about two teachers who have been removed from the classroom. The veteran teachers, Andrew Miller and Brandon Knapp, are the subject of separate police investigations. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The City of Bloomington is stepping into what promises to be a thorny issue: rules about signs. City Manager Jeff Jurgens said the city hasn't revised its sign code since the 1970s. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From ramen noodles for dinner tonight to retirement further down the road, college students face financial stress at the start of their adult lives like never before. Redbird Flight Plan, formerly Redbird FLI, is Illinois State University’s solution to teaching students skills to ease financial anxiety. It’s a part of the College of Business. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The bald eagle used to be a rare sight in Illinois. Now, there are more than 3,000 that spend the winter here. IPR's Jess Savage reports. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Four airlines now fly in and out of the Central Illinois Regional Airport [CIRA]. They carried about 325,000 passengers last year. It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when the airport that served the Twin Cities had sod and gravel runways. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are many myths about the American west. There’s the myth of bringing order out of a savage wasteland. The myth of disordered and uncivilized native Americans. The myth of the noble Caucasian cowboy. The myth of rugged individualists who wrested a living from the earth without help from anyone else. And the myth of women without agency who deferred to men. All of these are wrong. Yet they are remarkably sticky in American cultural consciousness according to historian Megan Kate Nelson. Nelson will speak at Illinois State University on March 19. Her talk How the Real West was Lost: The Frontier Myth and the Erasure of U.S. Western History is part of history department programming sponsored by the Sage Foundation. Nelson’s new book The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier is out at the end of the month from Simon & Schuster. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

March 2 - 6 is severe weather preparedness week in Illinois, just ahead of storm season for the state. March 20, the first day of Spring, marks one of the busiest seasons for weather and safety organizations. Cathy Beck is director of the McLean County Emergency Management Agency [EMA]. She understands storm season can cause panic. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A win over Missouri Valley Conference leader Belmont on Sunday helped Illinois State carry a two-game winning streak and some momentum heading into this weekend’s Missouri Valley Conference [MVC] men’s basketball tournament. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The haunting pull of memory and its potential power to destroy or shape identity come to life in the Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home, produced for the first time in Bloomington-Normal this weekend. Based on a true events from graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and the struggle to write her autobiography as she reflects on her past will be performed by the Community Players Theatre March 5-7 at the Normal Community Activity Center. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Chiddix Junior High School teacher being investigated by police was disciplined by Unit 5 in December for “repeated unprofessional conduct in the classroom,” according to a Letter of Reprimand obtained by WGLT through a public records request. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to federal data, more than 100,000 students are physically restrained and secluded in locked rooms annually in U.S. schools. But a Twin City scholar on criminology and psychology said that’s an undercount. Charles Bell is an associate professor of criminal justice sciences at Illinois State University. Bell focuses on school discipline; his latest research on school seclusion and restraint is captured in a new book, No Restraint. Support the show: https://donate.nprstations.org/wglt/wglt-choose-donation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.