The goal of the local news collaboration Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate was to provide Monroe County residents “with vital information, comprehensive coverage, and transparency.” For more than two years, the series covered pressing issues in Monroe County, from health to education to the environment. (Above) Deep Dive opened with a two-part series on the local housing crisis and potential solutions. | Photo by Jim Krause

The innovative local news series Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate received statewide, national, and international recognition, but the most impact was local, surpassing its goal to provide Monroe County residents “with vital information, comprehensive coverage, and transparency.” Read a wrap-up of the series, including links to every broadcast and article by WFHB and Limestone Post.

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    Welcome to Limestone Post, an independent magazine committed to publishing informative and inclusive stories about Bloomington, Indiana, and the surrounding areas. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, our mission is to focus on solutions-based journalism, as well covering the arts, outdoors, social-justice issues, and more. You can donate here and subscribe for free! If you’d like to learn more, send us an email.

    June 24, 2025

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While many Americans do not trust national news sources, they still say they have faith in local news. | Photo by iStock/Getty Images Plus

While many Americans have lost trust in national news sources, most say they still rely on the accuracy of local news, with 74 percent of Americans saying they had at least some trust in their local news organizations. And yet, more than 3,200 local and regional newspapers have closed since 2005. This report by Purdue University Professor Jennifer Hoewe puts the plight of news into perspective.

Jon Tonks and Roman Franc (l-r) pause during their photo shoot at the Musical Arts Center on the Indiana University campus. The photographers visited Bloomington in February and returned in April for a community photography project. Their work will be shown at Pictura Gallery beginning June 6. | Limestone Post

In February, European fine art photographers Jon Tonks and Roman Franc began working on a project to photograph various groups in and around Bloomington. The results will be exhibited at Pictura Gallery in the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts beginning June 6, coinciding with the Fourth and Rogers Block Party and Gallery Walk Bloomington. Hiromi Yoshida profiled the photographers and Pictura co-owner Martha Moore.

Yemenite families create their own blends of hawaij, starting with a spice template, then tweaking and personalizing it. “When you combine black pepper with turmeric, cumin, and cloves,” Ruthie writes, “compliant tubers get downright sassy!” | Photo by Ruthie Cohen

Ruthie Cohen was a spice loyalist, but sometimes, she writes, you have to be less complacent and shake things up. In these recipes for Stirring the Pot, she shows one way to create hawaij — a spice blend from Yemen — and how you can use it in soups, stews, and even coffee.
Get started with Ruthie’s hawajj.

Cindy Chavez, left, and Traci Ayala run Pantry 279, a food bank in Ellettsville that has lost food supplies because of federal funding cuts. | Photo by Trung Le

Federal Funding Cuts Are Hitting Home Food banks, libraries, water quality organizations among numerous groups affected

Grandparents with custody of their grandchildren, low-income families, and stewards of clean water are all feeling the impact of federal funding cuts. Vulnerable Hoosiers are getting hit the worst. Writer Trung Le interviewed leaders at several local nonprofits to see how uncertainty caused by government policies are leading to hardship. Read how the cuts are hurting.

“One of the things I’ve been playing with in the work — and, of course, the work is always a reflection of personal growth and thought — is the awareness of how fear and desire are often the same,” says sculptor Melanie Cooper Pennington. | Photo by Claude Cookman

Bloomington Sculptor Reaches ‘Punctuation Point’ with Her Latest Exhibition

The career of IU sculpture professor Melanie Cooper Pennington has evolved over 30-plus years, but she considers her recent exhibition at the I Fell Gallery “a punctuation point.” Claude Cookman, author and professor emeritus at IU, says watching Cooper Pennington talk about her work feels like watching one of her sculptures come to life. See and read about her work here.

Immigration enforcement is a key justification for repurposing government data, but it also lays the groundwork for mass surveillance, says IU researcher Nicole M. Bennett. | Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

Making Government Surveillance of Americans More Efficient How the Trump administration is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance

The result of newly imposed data-sharing arrangements between government agencies and private companies means the federal government is transforming into an integrated surveillance apparatus, capable of monitoring behavior at an unprecedented scale. IU researcher Nicole M. Bennett says these developments are framed as administrative streamlining, but they lay the groundwork for mass surveillance, without public scrutiny or judicial oversight. Read Bennett’s analysis here.

“Jazz culture is about being a part of the jazz community and being connected to the history of the music,” says Tom Walsh (above), a professor of music in saxophone and chair of the Department of Jazz Studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. | Courtesy photo

Tom Walsh: The Man Inside the Music

Tom Walsh, professor of music in saxophone and chair of the Department of Jazz Studies at the IU Jacobs School of Music, spoke to writer Aaron B. Cohen about the combination of jazz and jazz education, transmitting the culture of music, and the roots of music culture in Bloomington. Read Cohen’s Q&A with Walsh here.

MCCSC Superintendent Markay Winston keeps her focus on the students and a goal to “organize the system in a way that benefits every learner.” | Courtesy photo

MCCSC Superintendent Markay Winston Keeps Her Focus on ‘Every Learner’

With declining enrollment and a state legislature prioritizing private schools over public schools, MCCSC Superintendent Markay Winston keeps her focus on the students and a goal to “organize the system in a way that benefits every learner.” Reporter Steve Hinnefeld talked to her about her responsibilities and how she approaches the challenges. Click here for a profile of Dr. Winston.

Studies show that social media use, the COVID pandemic, and the ‘Echo Pandemic’ are among the reasons Indiana teenagers have experienced a dramatic increase in mental health issues in recent years. | Photo by Benedict Jones

Mental Health Issues Are Increasing Dramatically Among Hoosier Youth Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate Teen Mental Health

A recent survey shows nearly half of Indiana high school students had experienced depression, and a quarter of those students had developed a suicide plan. While mental health professionals do what they can to help students, legislative efforts in Indiana seem insufficient to address this growing problem, writes Rebecca Hill. Read Hill’s Deep Dive report on teen mental health.

Since 2016, live performances in The Remarkable Women Series have enlightened the public on “the many unknown and un-celebrated contributions of African Americans.” The series is produced by Resilience Productions, which was founded by (above, l-r) Danielle Bruce, Gladys DeVane, and Liz Mitchell. | Courtesy photo

‘History Reclaimed, Stories Retold, Theatre Revealed’ Resilience Productions’ Remarkable Women Series Aims to Educate, Enlighten, and Engage

Since 2016, Danielle Bruce, Gladys DeVane, and Liz Mitchell have enlightened the public on “the many unknown and un-celebrated contributions of African Americans” to Indiana and U.S. history. The next live performance in their Remarkable Women Series is about Judge Viola Taliaferro. They shared their personal experiences and unique contributions with writer Hiromi Yoshida. Click here to read about these Remarkable Women.

In 1994, a group of Bloomington women conducted a homegrown experiment to create a new science playground for children. Today, WonderLab Museum of Science, Health & Technology has become a success story far beyond what many could have imagined. (above) WonderLab staff at the museum’s original location in the Wicks Building on the downtown square (clockwise from far left): Louise Schlesinger, Mary Sommers, Colleen Couper, Karen Stucky, Erin Gerecke, Catherine Olmer, (unidentified), Karen Jepson-Innes, Jeanne Gunning, Greta Faroute | Photo by Melinda Seader

The ‘WonderWomen’ Behind WonderLab

In 1994, a group of Bloomington women conducted a homegrown experiment to create a science playground for children. Today, as it welcomes a new executive director, WonderLab Museum has become a success story far beyond what they imagined. LP contributor Trung Le interviewed some of the women involved with WonderLab since its humble beginnings. Click here to read about the WonderWomen.

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    “Congressional control of the U.S. Supreme Court’s purse strings and congressional ability to initiate impeachment proceedings have plainly not sufficed to put the court more in tune with the public.” —Jim Allison, in “Whereas, Chief Justice John Marshall Declares the Supreme Court Supreme”
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