This newscast aired at 12:04pm on 5-21-2025 on WGLT.
From the WTLT newsroom, I'm John Norton. The state of Illinois has launched a public survey on adding much faster passenger trains that would run through Blooming to normal. Raymond Lai is executive director of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission. He says 200 mile an hour trains from Chicago to Saint Louis would expand job opportunities for many. Say they can live, uh, say in Bloomington, normal. They work in Chicago. I mean, they can.
Do the daily commutes through high-speed train, for example, the state has started a feasibility study that would explore connecting service to Peoria, Decatur, Moline, and Rockford.
Police say juveniles are partly to blame for a recent increase in gun violence in Bloomington Normal. Bloomington saw an over 200% increase in juvenile arrests involving guns in 2024, and one gun can cause multiple problems. Bloomington police spokesperson Officer Bryce Jansen says around 40% of guns recently recovered after a crime.
Have been used locally in another shots fired incident.
It's a commodity. They'll, you know, trade hands with it and like they'll post pictures of themselves with it, you know, kind of bragging like look what
I got.
Jansen encourages people to call police if they see or hear anything suspicious, and he urges legal gun owners to keep their weapons securely stored to make them more difficult to steal. And the new website that coordinates charitable giving to help the unhoused in Bloomington Normal is a good start.
That's according to Liam Wheeler. He coordinates homeless services among 11 counties through the Central Illinois continuum of care. By bolstering the efforts of the organizations that are already partnering in that community that are already serving that population, we can better help those clients navigate what services they need.
Um, what supports they will need in order to be successful in housing. The website BNThesolutions.com includes donation links to seven community organizations. Wheeler says he hopes the website would lead to greater coordination of homeless services. Mostly cloudy through the day here in Bloomington normal. There's a chance of showers and fog through early afternoon. Today's high near 60. I'm John Norton, WGLT.