This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, April 17th, 2025.

In today’s newscast, local journalist Anne Kibbler joins Civic Conversations – a podcast collaboration between WFHB and the League of Women Voters – about Indiana’s rollback of protections for wetlands. Also coming up in the next half hour, WFHB Sports Correspondent Jake Bedway reports on the IU Ultimate Frisbee Team.

Feature Report:

Up next, the 2025 Burning Couch Festival – an all day music and arts festival in Bloomington – has been cancelled due to anticipated rain on Saturday. Prior to the cancellation, organizers of the Burning Couch Festival joined WFHB’s Youth Radio for an in-studio interview talking about the event. We turn now to that interview.

Up next – two hundred years ago, Indiana had 5.5 million acres of wetlands, but now it has only 800,000 acres. Until 2021, Indiana had stronger wetlands protections than many other states. Since that period, however, the Indiana legislature has significantly loosened regulations, allowing people to build more in areas once designated as wetlands. We turn now to Part II of an interview with local journalist Anne Kibbler on Civic Conversations.

In today’s feature report, WFHB Sports Correspondent Jake Bedway reports on the IU Ultimate Frisbee Team. Bedway speaks with team captain, Andrew Vetne, who walks through the basics of the sport, how the team prepares throughout the season, and how the team hopes to develop a winning strategy for the upcoming tournament season. We turn to Sports Correspondent Jake Bedway for more.

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