David Brent Johnson’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz seems to have come from a lifetime of devotion to the music. But WFIU’s jazz director didn’t “see the light” until his 20s — while drinking coffee in a Kirkwood cafe. Michael G. Glab gets the story of this Bloomington legend in Big Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.
A medication can lower the risk of contracting HIV by more than 90 percent in some people. But obstacles, including the cost of getting it and the stigma of using it, prevent some people from even trying. Writer Hayley Miller and photographer Nicole McPheeters report on how Positive Link is working to break down these barriers. Click here to read the full story.
Advocacy group Friends of Lake Monroe wrote a letter to Limestone Post in response to the article “Property Rights, Public Good, Campaign Contributions” by Susan M. Brackney. In the letter, they argue that the article did not go far enough to address the public’s need for clean water, among other issues. Read the entire letter here.
The plight of bees could also be the plight of the human race. When writer Erin Hollinden decided to start her own beehive, and save the world, she found plenty of support from a community of experts and other beekeepers. Read about how she got her hive humming here.
While Columbus’s architectural treasures have been admired for decades, it wasn’t until 2011 that the Miller House and Garden, designed by architect Eero Saarinen, opened for public tours. Writer Jenny Elig and photographer Adam Reynolds take us to the family home of J. Irwin and Xenia Miller — and inside the architectural jewel. Click here to read the full story.
Bev Knight’s collection of more than 400 varieties of azaleas started with a UPS delivery to a doctor. Now her family’s Azalea Path Botanical Garden and Arboretum is known nationwide for its woodland flowers (among other plants). Videographer Duane Busick calls the southern Indiana destination "a hidden patch of paradise." Watch his video here.
Single city blocks all over Bloomington generate more rooftop solar energy than the entirety of Indiana University’s Bloomington campus, says writer Matt Flaherty in this guest column. What’s most troubling, he says, is that IU’s “dollars-and-cents analysis of solar power is the fundamentally wrong approach for IU to take.” Click here to read the full story.
A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character, because “that’s why people want to live in Bloomington,” he says in this profile by Michael G. Glab. Click here to read the full story.
A bill introduced in the Indiana House this year would have limited local governments’ ability to regulate such things as logging on private property, even if, for example, the logging threatened to damage Lake Monroe. But it isn’t just about private property vs. public good, writes Susan M. Brackney. Special interest groups and campaign finance play a role, too. Click here to read the full story.
Last year, IU research associate and policy analyst Luke Wood wrote an article in LP about a potential clash between Indiana’s moderate Republicans and the Trump administration. Now, with the Indiana primaries over, he looks at how the Trump era has affected Democratic politicians and voters in Indiana ahead of the 2018 midterm election. Click here to read the full story.
Politics, like theater, relies on the relationship between the stage and the audience, writes LP columnist Jennifer Pacenza in her Behind the Curtain preview of Church & State. The latest production of Jewish Theatre of Bloomington puts this relationship center stage in a “funny and heartrending play with a powerful message about God, guns, and politics.” Click here to read the full story.
Since 2005, Bloomington-based nonprofit The Language Conservancy has helped save indigenous languages across the nation. And now, a partnership with the United Nations expands TLC’s efforts worldwide. As writer Michelle Gottschlich’s article says, in addition to revitalizing endangered languages, TLC’s work is about getting people back “to being a human being.” Click here to read the full story.
