In Laurie D. Borman’s second travel piece for Limestone Post, she takes us to New Harmony, a town along the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana. Some visitors enjoy the “wonderfully preserved” town and its unusual history. Others are attracted by a more spiritual connection. As one shop owner puts it, “This is a town you feel.” Click here to travel with Laurie to New Harmony.
Since 2016, students in Rachel Bahr’s English 11 class at Bloomington’s Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship have made immersive audio tours about their “sense of place,” someplace they’re personally or sentimentally connected to — or simply “where you aren’t afraid to be yourself.” And they graciously share their videos with Limestone Post’s readers. Click here for ASE’s 2023 “Sense of Place” videos.
![[Photo Gallery: 20 photos]: Legislation recently introduced by Sen. Mike Braun would double the size of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area by Lake Monroe and convert another 29,000 acres of Hoosier National Forest into the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area. This photo was taken from the Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower, which stands 133 steps above the Deam’s Terrill Ridge, a thousand feet above sea level. Built in 1939 to identify forest fires, the tower is a popular destination due to its magnificent 360-degree view of the Southern Indiana forest. | All photography in the gallery above by Steven Higgs](https://limestonepostmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/feature-1-1.jpeg)
“In wildness is the preservation of the world,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden in 1854. Now, in this photo essay, journalist and photographer Steven Higgs considers Thoreau’s declaration vis à vis the Deam Wilderness Area in the Hoosier National Forest, especially in light of proposed legislation that would double the Deam’s size. Click here for a Deep Dive into “the Hoosier.”
IU professors of metalsmithing and jewelry design are collaborating with the nonprofit Ethical Metalsmiths to inspire students to create jewelry from ethically source materials, reconsider consumer habits, and promote stories behind donated jewelry. Metalsmithing and jewelry-design students from several Midwest universities will showcase their work in an exhibition called Radical Jewelry Makeover Bloomington in January. Click here for the story by Hiromi Yoshida.
Faced with the escalating impacts of climate change, trees are the cornerstone of climate resilience. They act as buffers against drought, heat stress, and flooding, and they should be at the forefront of our quest for a greener future. Planting new trees will be an essential step in sustaining our urban canopy, but managing mature trees is just as important. Click here for a message from Bluestone Tree.
Over thousands of years and across diverse landscapes, Indigenous peoples developed traditional ecological knowledge about the bison and their ecosystems, writes Indigenous scholar Rosalyn R. LaPier, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet tribe. Meanwhile, tribes also developed religious customs and sacred places important to their relationship with bison. Click here for this article from The Conversation.
Legislation recently introduced by Sen. Mike Braun would add 15,300 acres to the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area’s 12,953 acres, making places like Nebo Ridge, Browning Mountain, Bad Hollow, and Panther Creek off-limits to logging. The bill would also create the 29,000-acre Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area, Indiana’s only national recreation area. Click here for details about the bill.
Limestone Post and WFHB Community Radio are finalists in the 2023 Nonprofit News Awards for Journalism Collaboration of the Year. Their local news series, called Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate, is one of three collaborations nationwide selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News. The Limestone Post article, “The Long Goodbye: Living with Alzheimer’s Disease,” by Rebecca Hill, is also a finalist for INN’s Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism. Click here to read more.
Parents, educators, and advocates say the Indiana General Assembly passed harmful and unnecessary laws that are taking effect this school year. Laws that prioritize private over public schools, underfund mandates, intimidate vulnerable students, and even create a “chilling effect” on librarians, they say, amount to a “slate of hate.” | Click here for an education deep dive by Steve Hinnefeld.
This is the second article in a two-part series on lax ethics rules in the Indiana State Legislature. Both articles come from a joint investigation between the Indiana Environmental Reporter and the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism that shows how some Indiana lawmakers stood to benefit financially from environmental legislation they introduced or supported. Click here for the article.
“It is imperative for nonprofit funders, corporations, community agencies and the community at large to come together to devise solutions amidst the uncertainty in cost,” says Michelle Gilchrist, President and CEO of Bloomington Health Foundation. The foundation expects to distribute an estimated $2 million during 2022 to nonprofits delivering community health services. Click here to read about the foundation’s innovative solutions to improving community health.
“Lake Monroe is a reservoir, and all reservoirs eventually fill up,” says Michelle Cohen, executive director of Lake Monroe Water Fund. But, she adds, those who rely on the lake for drinking water, recreation, and other uses have the power to extend its life as long as possible. Writer Michael G. Glab takes a deep dive into the health of Lake Monroe. Click here for his report for Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate.
Janiece Jaffe’s artistic journey “was powerfully informed by countless collaborations … each partnership an act of musical alchemy,” writes Krista Detor in this tribute to Bloomington’s legendary musical artist. “She was a uniquely generous and catalytic artist whose collaborations recurred over decades and whose memories will be cherished forever.” Click here to read Krista’s tribute to Janiece.
Rebecca Hill, president of the Limestone Post board of directors, is a frequent writer for the magazine, and she has penned a letter to you, our subscribers, to show LP’s commitment to the community, why she prefers the long-form stories that we feature, and why such reporting has become so crucial. She also explains how donations help — and how your donation this month will be doubled! Click here to open Rebecca’s letter.
Jill Bond, news director for The Herald-Times, says Monroe County does not have to become a news desert. “We can regain local control of access to information about our community,” she says. For starters, Bond created a local news fund at the Community Foundation and is auctioning more than 1,000 books of newspapers, spanning about 100 years, to support the fund. Click here to read Jill Bond’s column.
The Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism and the Indiana Environmental Reporter reviewed statements of economic interest filed in 2022 by Indiana’s state lawmakers. They found more than 100 bills enacted from 2019 to 2022 that benefit industries the authors have ties to, creating at least the appearance of a conflict of interest. Click here to read their findings.