WGLT's Sound Ideas

Surveys show Americans are getting increasingly concerned about the future of our democracy. You see it at political rallies. It can feel like civic engagement has never been greater. But at the local level, where the government can have a much greater impact on our lives, it's often much different.

Data Centers are getting a lot of attention in Bloomington. In Normal, not so much — both in inquiries by business and concerns from the public. Mayor Chris Koos said during a Sound Ideas interview, as in the City of Bloomington, the amount of land needed for a large-scale data center makes it unlikely any site inside town limits would be suitable.

AFSCME Local 1110 members went back to work at Illinois State University [ISU] this week at the ratification of their contract, but there are still hurt feelings after the strike. The five-year contract approved Tuesday ended the nearly month-long strike, the longest in the history of ISU. But at the university’s quarterly board of trustees meeting Friday, union president Chuck Carver said that while they are happy about returning to work, they are still upset with university leadership.

It takes more than Facebook comments and email blasts to get results when advocating for change in local government. WGLT talked to those who've done it successfully to create this Local Democracy Playbook — a resource for you to follow in their footsteps.

With uncertainty surrounding press protections at the national level, the state of Illinois holds a strong reporter privilege statute. That’s according to Don Craven, general counsel for Illinois Press Association and three other statewide journalism organizations. He’s held the job protecting journalists in court and legal litigation since the mid-1980s

Community Players Theatre kicks off its spring musical Thursday with a pay-what-you-can preview of Dreamgirls. The hit show loosely based on the Motown music biz and the Supremes' rise to fame officially opens Friday and runs three weekends at the Bloomington theater.

While gas prices keep soaring as the U.S. war in Iran shows no end in sight, Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said he’s ready to see the Trump administration find a way out of the war soon.

Bloomington city officials heard lots of pushback on the possibility of a data center in the community during a public forum on Wednesday. At the 2 p.m. session that included 70 attendees, they heard an overwhelmingly negative reception to the idea of a hyperscale facility, sometimes called an AI farm, being built in collaboration with the city.

The Dementia Friendly Bloomington-Normal Task Force is seeking community input on how people living with dementia and their caregivers can be best supported in the Twin Cities.

Food pantries in Central Illinois are bracing for an uncertain future because of changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]. According to the Illinois Department of Human Services, 120,000 people could lose their benefits. Non-disabled people up to age 64 now have to work or volunteer 80 hours a month to keep their SNAP benefits. The changes took effect May 1.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin doesn't think the current version of the Farm Bill will fly, saying during a news conference in Normal the House version will not get his vote.

Students and staff at Normal Community High School have all returned home after a broad threat prompted an emergency response evacuating the school. In a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Normal Police Department spokesperson Brad Park said the school received a concerning call around 8 a.m., triggering the response. Park said the threat was broad and wide-ranging. Police assisted with the investigation and evacuation, while securing the school property.

In his first State of the City speech, Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady said the city has accomplished a lot in his first year.

Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens said the city has fielded multiple inquiries about locating a data center in the community over several years.

Students and staff of Normal Community West High School surprised the school principal as they celebrated her win of a leadership excellence award.

The transition to a new regional superintendent of schools is complete. Mark Jontry retired at the end of April after serving as head of Regional Office of Education #17 since 2008. The Bloomington-based office provides direct support for McLean, DeWitt, Livingston and Logan County public schools and as well as some programming for about a dozen private schools. Molly Allen, who served about six years as assistant regional superintendent, is now regional superintendent.

It’s not often that a Bloomington-Normal severe weather event makes it into a quarterly earnings report closely watched by Wall Street investors. But it did Thursday. Leaders with the electric automaker Rivian gave investors an update on the tornado that damaged a section of the new R2 plant in west Normal two weeks ago.

Homeless advocates from Bloomington and Lincoln took opposite approaches to finding success with recent shelter projects, as they discussed during the Women to Women Spring Forum on Tuesday at Bloomington Public Library.

Gov. JB Pritzker is pushing for statewide zoning changes to spark housing construction. The suite of provisions in the Building Up Illinois Developments [BUILD] legislation would remove local restrictions and allow more multifamily housing in areas currently limited to single-family homes.

An experimental music ensemble made up of high schoolers from Normal has dropped a new LP and is preparing for a concert at the McLean County Museum of History. The album, A Moment of Yet, is released under the Bloomington-Normal indie label Black Flag Bonsai Club, launched in 2025 by composer/musician/producer Stefen Robinson—who happens to be the group’s faculty advisor.

Illinois has one of the highest number of data centers in the country. But as residents worry about their water and electricity use, state lawmakers are considering legislation to rein in new data center proposals.

Peer recovery support specialists are increasingly recognized as a critical piece of the puzzle guiding people through addiction recovery. And robust collaborations between McLean County's court system, community health providers and Heartland Community College are positioning the region as a state leader in modeling a path that keeps people out of prison and focused on recovery.

Some striking dining and grounds workers at Illinois State University said they are struggling to make ends meet amid their third week with no paychecks.

The AFSCME Local 1110 strike at Illinois State University [ISU] is approaching its third week with no apparent end in sight. AFSCME Local 1110 is the union representing about 350 striking building, dining and grounds employees at ISU. They have been on strike since April 8.

Illinois is building a quantum workforce to develop the state as a global destination for emerging technology, with Bloomington-Normal among the locations chosen to promote the new initiative. The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park [IQMP], a quantum business park backed by the state about two years ago, is starting a new campaign called “Quantum Across Illinois.” It includes a series of visits to Illinois universities to recruit new college graduates to careers in the field.

The superintendent of District 87 schools said a new policy banning cell phones in classrooms has had a positive impact at Bloomington High School. Superintendent David Mouser gave updates on the policy and a number of other important topics during an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.

Loyola University researchers studying the Pretrial Fairness Act [PFA] say McLean County detains defendants awaiting trial at higher rates than most Illinois counties. In a presentation this week to McLean County's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council [CJCC], Loyola researcher David Olson presented preliminary findings about the PFA’s impact on the state’s criminal justice system. The law took effect in 2023, making Illinois the first state to eliminate cash bail.

Illinois State University Vice President of Finance and Planning Glen Nelson discusses negotiations with AFSCME amid the strike which began on April 8. 

The Community Health Care Clinic in Normal has seen a big increase in need over the last nine months. Director Holly Wayland-Hall said in a Sound Ideas interview that overarching demand for service has risen about 75% through the first three quarters of this fiscal year.

After more than three years on the legislative backburner, the Illinois House on Wednesday approved a major economic development bill that would clear the path for the Chicago Bears to build a new domed stadium in Arlington Heights.  

The Meet the Newsroom series pulls back the curtain to introduce you to the team that makes WGLT possible. The series continues with WGLT’s Cindy Alcazar, who has covered all kinds of stories for WGLT as a part-time reporter (aka correspondent).

The Town of Normal has collected more storm debris in less than a week than all the waste it hauled away in March. The town previously said it collected about 3,900 cubic yards of brush, branches, and limbs over the weekend following last Friday's tornadoes. It’s a lot more now — 6,600-plus cubic yards, City Manager Pam Reece said in a Sound Ideas interview.

As Route 66 turns 100, a new book is expanding the story of the Mother Road by focusing on people often left out of its history.

A year after the Ecology Action Center [EAC] got a green light on its proposal for a permanent hazardous waste disposal site, the Normal nonprofit is casting a wide net to raise the approximately $6 million needed to get the project off the ground. Executive Director Michael Brown said pending state legislation regulating disposal of toxic and combustible items could help.

The Illinois Senate has unanimously passed a bill to expand orders of protection to online spaces and allow victims to indefinitely extend protection orders. The bill would give law enforcement more authority to investigate and bring charges against anyone who uses online spaces to harass someone with an order of protection against that person. People with protection orders would also be able to indefinitely extend the order of protection.

A pair of Central Illinois legislators acknowledge the national scene is bleak for members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community. But Sen. Dave Koehler of Peoria and Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington say Illinois' Democratic supermajority is working to keep the state a beacon of LGBTQ+ support.

A grant that will help fund a two-mile stretch of new sewer interceptor on Bloomington-Normal’s west side is part of a much larger project that may link some small towns in McLean County to the Twin Cities' sewage treatment system.

McLean County is awarding more than $1.7 million in mental health and public safety funding to nearly a dozen local organizations, following a revamping of the application and selection process. Awards range from $30,000 to $650,000, and will go to groups such as Home Sweet Home Missions, Lifelong Access, and The Baby Fold.

As Stan Gozur takes his seat as president of the Unit 5 school board, he said he is pleased with the direction the school district is headed after the enrollment study saga. Gozur previously served as the board vice president. In his new role, his top priorities include incorporating more stakeholder opinions and organizing finances.

A lunch-and-learn hosted by Bloomington-Normal's LGBTQ+ advocacy organization hopes to give community members tools to discuss suicide. Prairie Pride Coalition is hosting the event, which features a new queer-focused curriculum from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Six tornadoes struck McLean County on Friday night, according to the National Weather Service — three of them in Bloomington and Normal. All of the twisters that went through McLean County were relatively mild EF1 tornadoes or less, though two of them packed a punch of 110 mph winds. The others had peak winds of 90-100 mph, the NWS said in a news release.

What did Brandon Holtz take away from living every golfer’s dream last week, playing against the best in the world at the Masters? So much, that his first day back at his RE/MAX Rising real estate office was mostly “staring blankly at the (computer) screen, just picturing what just happened.”

The Bloomington Bison close out their second season this weekend at Grossinger Motors Arena — but they might not be done playing. The minor league hockey team is in the running for the ECHL’s final playoff spot for what would be their first postseason berth.

The new $370 million budget for the City of Bloomington is the largest ever. In this Sound Ideas interview with WGLT's Charlie Schlenker, Mayor Dan Brady says if not for water department projects to separate sewers, replace water mains and remove lead service lines, the budget would actually have declined.

The Illinois Symphony Orchestra [ISO] is capping its season with a Route 66-themed world premiere from Chicago-based composer Michelle Isaac. It’s Music Director Taichi Fukumura's first-ever commission since joining the orchestra two years ago, but the Illinois Symphony has a long-standing history of world premieres.

The Meet the Newsroom series pulls back the curtain to introduce you to the team that makes WGLT possible. The series continues with WGLT correspondent Braden Fogerson, an Illinois State University alum who covers education across McLean County.

A nonprofit aims to help Illinois State University and other teaching colleges in Illinois address the teacher shortage by recruiting more educators from other professions. Grow Your Own Illinois hosted a recruiting event at ISU on Monday to find prospective educators for ISU and more than 20 colleges and universities across the state. The group's recruitment director, Herman Reeves, said the group is targeting those considering a career change and nontraditional students through its We See the Teacher In You campaign.

Voters living within Normal Township will have an extra question on their November ballots. At issue was a whether the state of Illinois should repeal its anti-BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] statute restricting state-funded institutions from refusing to engage with companies that "profit from or enable Israel's apartheid policies and human rights violations."

In the Bloomington-Normal community, there is a significant need for Spanish-speaking volunteer translators. Organizations such as Illinois State University’s Sigma Delta Pi (the National Spanish Honor Society) and Wesley United Methodist Church and community members who volunteer independently are helping fill this need for translating and interpreting.

Following a lengthy transition period, Michelle Conger is embracing her new role as CEO of the OSF HealthCare system.