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[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

On Saving the Deam Wilderness and Hoosier National Forest | Photo Essay Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate the Hoosier National Forest
Steven Higgs
“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.”
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Legislation recently introduced by Sen. Mike Braun would double the size of Indiana’s official wilderness area, making places like Nebo Ridge (above), Browning Mountain, Bad Hollow, and Panther Creek off-limits to logging, among other restrictions. The bill would also create the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area, Indiana’s only NRA. | Photo by Steven Higgs

New Legislation Would Double Size of Deam Wilderness Bill would also establish a new national recreation area by Lake Monroe
Steven Higgs
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.
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Parents, educators, and advocates say the Indiana General Assembly passed harmful and unnecessary laws that are taking effect this school year. They say public schools, including those in the Monroe County Community School Corp., face a “slate of hate” — laws that underfund mandates, intimidate vulnerable students, and even create a “chilling effect” on librarians. Above, students are greeted on the first day of school at Fairview Elementary School by members of the city of Bloomington’s Commission on the Status of Black Males. | Photo by Garrett Ann Walters

Local Parents, Educators Face ‘Attack’ on Public Schools from Indiana Lawmakers
Steve Hinnefeld, Garrett Ann Walters
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.
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During legislative sessions at the Indiana Statehouse (above), any member of the Indiana House of Representatives or Indiana Senate can sponsor a bill. While a bill in either chamber must pass through a series of gatekeepers before becoming law, conflicts of interest among the lawmakers are usually not considered. | Limestone Post

Conflicts of Interest Continued During Indiana’s 2023 Legislative Session
Enrique Sáenz
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.
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The “Breaking the News” exhibit at the Monroe County History Center tells the history of journalism in Monroe County. Jill Bond, news director for the The Herald-Times, says our community does not need to become a news desert. | Limestone Post

Guest Column: Auction of Newspaper Archive Will Support Local News Fund
Jill Bond
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.
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Members of the Indiana House of Representatives and Indiana Senate meet during legislative sessions to pass laws at the Indiana Statehouse (above). Many of those lawmakers have economic interests in the industries that stand to benefit from the laws those lawmakers author and vote on. | Limestone Post

Lax Ethics Rules Could Create Conflicts of Interest for Indiana Lawmakers
Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism The Indiana Environmental Reporter
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.
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The U.S. electrical grid is a complicated network of wires that traverse the continent and connect with regional private operators who then transmit and distribute power. Some call it “a patchwork of operators with competing interests,” writes Rebecca Hill. Indiana’s electricity comes primarily from coal, natural gas, and a growing renewables market, but the transition to renewables is not without problems. | Photo by Benedict Jones

The Power Struggle in Indiana’s Changing Energy Landscape Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate
Rebecca Hill, Benedict Jones
Indiana’s electricity comes primarily from coal, natural gas, and a growing renewables market. The transition to renewables, though, is not without problems, and the grid operators, regulators, and Indiana legislators are at odds with how to handle it. Rebecca Hill takes an in-depth look at Indiana’s power structure, as part of Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate. Click here to read about the transition of Indiana's energy landscape.
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Bloomington and Monroe County have already received their first payments from the first opioid settlement, but none of it has been spent. Many health service providers wonder where the money will go. NaloxBoxes, like the one above at the IU Health Center, are among the uses approved by the state as part of the settlement documents. | Photo by Benedict Jones

How Will Opioid Settlement Monies Be Spent — and Who Decides? Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate
Rebecca Hill, Benedict Jones
Bloomington and Monroe County have already received their first payments from the first opioid settlement, and health providers wonder where the money will go. In this article for the series “Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate,” Rebecca Hill interviewed state and local officials to report on the issue and its possible solutions. Click here for the article.
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Kara Schmidt (above) teaches students in Throop Elementary School in Paoli. Her work is part of a partnership between Orange County schools and Thrive Orange County, a “coalition of community leaders and citizens committed to creating a safe, stable, nurturing community for all.” What started in 2019 with Schmidt teaching just one class for two days a week now has her teaching 40 classes, kindergarten through 6th grade, at schools in Paoli and Orleans. | Photo by Faith Gammon

Public Schools in Orange County Rely on Unique Health Partnerships
Keri Jean Miksza
While public schools in Indiana are facing key policy and budgetary challenges, the Orange County public school districts in southern Indiana are working to overcome the challenges children face, via unique initiatives and innovative health-care partnerships, writes Keri Jean Miksza, an advocate with the Indiana Coalition for Public Education–Monroe County. Click here to read Keri’s article.
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Bloomington’s City Hall (above) might look different next year, as voters will elect a city clerk, common council members, and a new mayor in 2023. Also in Monroe County, residents in the Town of Ellettsville will vote for a clerk/treasurer and representatives to the town council from three wards. Across Indiana, municipal primary elections take place on May 2, with early voting in Monroe County beginning on April 4. | Limestone Post

Voting Guide for 2023 Local Primaries by League of Women Voters
Debora Shaw
Primary elections take place across Indiana this year on May 2, with early voting in Monroe County beginning on April 4. As Debora Shaw, spokesperson for the League of Women Voters of Bloomington–Monroe County, writes in this Voting Guide, local primary races may decide the eventual winner of the general election in November. Click here to read the Guide.
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The process of conducting elections has become a focal point for misinformation. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

Experts Grade Social Media Companies on Midterm Misinformation
Dam Hee Kim, Anjana Susarla, and Scott J. Shackelford
The 2022 midterm election season is prime time for misinformation and disinformation on social media. Three social media experts, including Scott Shackelford, professor of Business Law and Ethics at Indiana University, evaluate Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube on their ability to handle the problem. This article first appeared in The Conversation and is republished with permission. Click here to see who got a failing grade.
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