­

Sponsorship

Beyond Bloomington 168 results
Ida B. Wells was a writer, editor, activist, and co-founder of the NAACP. This statue of her was erected in 2021 in Memphis, Tennessee, adjacent to the Beale Street Baptist Church where she published a newspaper in the late 1800s. | Photo by Southern Hollows/S. Liles, CC-BY-SA-4.0

Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
Richard Campbell
Ida B. Wells spent much of her career as a journalist in the late 1800s shedding light on the horrors of lynching. The writer, editor, activist, and co-founder of the NAACP has been called the most famous Black woman of her time in the U.S. This article by Richard Campbell shows her lifelong fight for racial justice. Click here to learn more about Ida B. Wells.
Read More
The Marsh Madness Festival in Linton, Indiana, is February 14–15 at Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area. The annual event celebrates the sandhill crane migration that stops in Greene County and fuels an economic boost to the community. Above, sandhill cranes in Elkhart, Indiana. | Photo by Tina Nord

Sandhill Cranes Are the Stars of Marsh Madness at Goose Pond The annual wildlife spectacle boosts tourism in Greene County
Carol Johnson
Marsh Madness, February 14–15 at Goose Pond FWA, celebrates the sandhill crane migration that stops in Greene County and fuels an economic boost to the community. The annual event was established by the nonprofit Friends of Goose Pond, which supports the wetlands that attract numerous species of migratory birds. Read the article by Carol Johnson of the Southern Indiana Business Report.
Read More

Sponsorship

People take varied paths to the emergency medical profession, and their journeys can differ by geography. Nonetheless, Christine Brackenhoff writes, EMS personnel and agencies across our region have a strong spirit of interconnectivity. Above, flight paramedic Ashley Lucas prepares equipment for the next flight. | Photo by Christine Brackenhoff

Many Paths Taken to the Emergency Medical Profession
Christine Brackenhoff
The individual journeys people take to the emergency medical profession are varied and can differ by geography. Christine Brackenhoff profiles four EMS professionals in south-central Indiana to learn how they got where they are, and why. She also found a strong spirit of interconnectivity for first responders and EMS agencies across our region. Click here for the story.
Read More
Beginning in the mid-1990s, a group of Orange County citizens wearing orange T-shirts encouraged Indiana lawmakers to grant a gaming license to French Lick. Above, some of the “Orange Shirts” pose for a photo at the Statehouse (l-r): (front row) Betty Oakley, Mary Gilliatt, Geneva Street, Rep. Tom Saunders, Willa Sanders, and Leon Sanders; (back row) Debby Gilliatt, Vicky Perambo, Adina Cloud of the French Lick Springs Resort, Steve Ferguson of Cook Group, Tina Conner of Historic Landmarks, and Jack Carnes. | Photo from the Carnes Family Collection

How Orange T-shirts Helped Revive Gaming in French Lick
Laurie D. Borman and Carol Johnson
Beginning in the 1990s, a group of Orange County citizens traveled multiple times to the Indiana Statehouse to encourage lawmakers to grant a gaming license to the town of French Lick. Limestone Post and the Southern Indiana Business Report look back at those early days and how gaming today has affected the town and its citizens. Read the article by Laurie D. Borman and Carol Johnson.
Read More
A student works in the Design Studio in the Innovative Learning Center at Edgewood High School in Ellettsville. Edgewood has dozens of students doing in-house internships and apprenticeships, some paid and some unpaid, or working at student-run businesses. | Photography by Benedict Jones

Apprenticeships Work for Some High School Students But Not All — Yet Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate Workplace Apprenticeships
Steve Hinnefeld, Benedict Jones
Workplace apprenticeships are not your typical after-school jobs. Designed to connect high school students to real-life experiences in the workplace, apprenticeships provide on-the-job training for careers after high school. Many find the work valuable. Some experts, though, question the effectiveness of the programs, in part because such apprenticeships are not available to all students. Read this Deep Dive by Steve Hinnefeld.
Read More

Sponsorship

Activists gathered at the Monroe County Courthouse in 2022 for the “Take to the Streets — Defend Roe!” rally and march. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal protection of abortion rights across the country. Indiana then became the first state to pass an anti-abortion law, which, according to advocates for women’s health, has created confusion among doctors and endangered the lives of pregnant women. | Photo by Jeremy Hogan/The Bloomingtonian

Advocates for Women’s Healthcare Have Plans for Stricter Bans Groups provide abortion access despite further restrictions
Rebecca Hill
Poorly written anti-abortion laws in Indiana and other states have forced pregnant women to leave home for life-saving healthcare. Many women rely on networks of groups to help with travel to medical clinics and access to safe medication. Some of those groups have taken cues from the underground networks of the early 1970s. Read the in-depth report here.
Read More
Bloomington high school student Hazel Hammerstein founded the nonprofit Indiana Prevention Project. Above, Hazel and her sister’s mural for the Montana Meth Project, which inspired Hazel to start a similar project in Indiana when she and her family moved back to Bloomington. | Courtesy photo

‘Paint the State’ Anti-drug Mural Contest Started by Local Student Registration ends August 30
Hiromi Yoshida
Bloomington high school student Hazel Hammerstein founded the nonprofit Indiana Prevention Project to spread the message about the dangers of drug use. She and numerous supporters are running the Paint the State mural contest. Registration ends on August 30. Read about Hazel’s project, as well as the contest rules and timeline in this article by Hiromi Yoshida.
Read More
Megan Snook had a fast-paced life of traveling the world as a photojournalist. Becoming a mother changed that. And tintype photography has helped her “to appreciate the things which are most precious in this life.” Above, Snook’s tintypes of James Seaver (left) and Stephanie Duckworth. See gallery below.

Tintype Photography Transformed a Photojournalist’s Way of Life
Megan Snook
Life as a world-traveling documentary photographer was fast-paced for Megan Snook. But, as she writes in this photo essay, becoming a mother “drastically changed my way of life.” Tintype photography helped with the transformation, and now she is “better able to appreciate the things which are most precious in this life.” Read Megan’s story and see her tintype photography.
Read More

Sponsorship

Three generations of tractor enthusiasts ride in the parade at the Monroe County Antique Machinery Association Show in May. Eleanor, 3, sits with her father, Zach Clark, on the Allis-Chalmers while her grandfather Joel Clark follows on the John Deere. | Photos by Limestone Post

Antique Machinery Club Keeps Tractors — and History — Alive
Dason Anderson
In May, the Monroe County Antique Machinery Association held its spring antique machinery and tractor show. The turnout was “impressive,” writes Dason Anderson, as more than 100 tractors and other machines were on display. Association President Tim Deckard says the two-year-old club helps give the public a deeper understanding of our local history and culture. Read the story and see the machines.
Read More
Looking at the 1803 Supreme Court decision of “Marbury v. Madison” may help Americans grow more sympathetic to notions of judicial reform, writes Jim Allison. Given the unpopularity of recent Supreme Court rulings and questionable behavior by some of its justices, the time seems ripe. | Photo by Attie Heunis

Whereas, Chief Justice John Marshall Declares the Supreme Court Supreme
Jim Allison
A closer look at Marbury v. Madison — the Supreme Court decision that placed the judicial branch of government above Congress — may make Americans more open to judicial reform, writes Jim Allison. Given the unpopularity of recent court rulings and questionable behavior by some of its justices, the time seems ripe for a check on the court. Read the review.
Read More
Journalist Steven Higgs “trained” at Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve for a photographic expedition to the Colombian Amazon. Shown here on an Uplands Group Sierra Club hike he led are Amy Henn (front), Mary Carol Reardon (white hat), Will Cowan, and others. | Photography by Steven Higgs

A Half-century Trail from Beanblossom Bottoms to the Colombian Amazon
Steven Higgs
Bloomington environmental photographer and writer Steven Higgs has spent his career covering nature. Soon, though, he will connect two dots in a “half-century trail” when he photographs the Colombian Amazon. This spring, he made several trips to our own protected wilderness, Beanblossom Bottoms, to hone his photographic skills for the Amazonian expedition. Connect the dots here.
Read More
Rick Clayton is a hospice chaplain and the executive director of Harmony Palliative Arts Collective, a nonprofit end-of-life facility planned to open this summer in Brown County, Indiana. | Photo by Alayna Wilkening

Dying Well: Chaplain Offers ‘Perfect Place’ to Have a ‘Good Death’
Haley Miller
Many Hoosiers can’t access comfort care, and so they are less likely to experience a “good death,” writes Haley Miller. As defined, a good death avoids unnecessary suffering, maintains a family presence, manages pain, and upholds the patient’s dignity. A hospice chaplain in Brown County wants to create a place for more good deaths. Read about dying well.
Read More

Sponsorship