Ultimate Frisbee has become one of the top growing sports in the world. Over the past 2 decades, it has gained millions of participants and is currently played in 80 countries around the world.

Indiana University like many other Big 10 Colleges participates in inter collegiate ultimate frisbee. While it is not sanctioned by the NCAA it is still nationwide in terms of colleges participating in Ultimate Frisbee as a club sport.

WFHB Correspondent Jake Bedway spoke with Andrew Vetne, Captain of IU Ultimate Frisbee Team, about the culture surrounding Frisbee at the University and little known details about the sport.

Monroe Lake is home to a wide array of beautiful native plants and animals that make the reserve a popular place to visit for hikers, fishers, naturalists, researchers, and anyone just looking for a place to cool off on a hot summer day. However, like most large bodies of water, the Lake and its surrounding lands have begun to be negatively impacted by the spread of invasive species. These species pose a threat to the native ecosystems and waterways that play a key part in the lives of Monroe County citizens.

Many obstacles stand in the way of clean and clear waterways, biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and more. However, one threat stands among the rest as one of the greatest potential threats to our waterways – invasive species. These invasive species can dominate ecosystems, harm native species, forestry, and fisheries, and their presence is rapidly growing in Monroe Lake.

Until the early 1700s, the land of Lake Monroe was actually occupied by the Miami and Delaware tribes. The land that’s under the water was predominantly agriculture until the late 1950s. On March 24, 1954, the first announcement came out about the plans to make a 5600 acre lake. At the time, the major purpose of the creation of the lake was flood control. Approval was granted for the project by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1958, and then ground was broken on October 25 1960. The lake was actually fully functional by 1965. Today Monroe Lake serves as the primary water source for the City of Bloomington. 

The Lake is home to many native plant species such as yellow lady slippers and puttyroot orchids, an array of wildflowers, and trees such as yellowwood. Within the water, bluegill, walleye, yellow perch, and large and smallmouth bass, call the Lake their home. 

However, their homes are becoming threatened. On land, a variety of invasive species are beginning to take over. Martha Miller, the district manager at the Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation District talks about some of the invasive species near the Lake.

Miller commented, “The most prominent species near the lake are the standard ones that we find throughout most of Monroe County and predominantly Indiana- the autumn olive, the bush honeysuckle, the garlic mustard, the multiflora rose – those are all ones that are pretty common and grapevines inside the wooded areas, those kinds of things.”

These species all negatively impact the native biodiversity by disrupting ecosystems, altering habitats, and outcompeting native species for resources, all of which lead to the decline of native species in the area.

But how exactly do these species harm ecosystems?

“Again, that question sort of answers itself. It’s not natural. It’s not native. It doesn’t belong. When a germ or a virus enters a human cell, what happens? We get sick. We need medicines to help us take care of the problem. Same is true here as for the long term effect. We don’t really know what the long term effect will be. We only know what damage and concern has been done up to this point in time, and how these non native plants are working so hard to destroy and take over our native lands,” says Miller.

WFHB News spoke with Jill Vance, a Monroe Lake Interpretive Naturalist, who spoke more on their threat.

Vance states, “One really easy to see is that they just out-compete native plants, and then we end up with a monoculture of just that plant. And you know, particularly for some of the shrub or herbaceous layer stuff, that’s going to be really evident when you look around. This is nothing but this, and if you have nothing but that, you are limiting food options for our native wildlife, because they’re not adapted to eat that stuff. And lot of these invasives are things that become able to out compete our natives because the animals aren’t interested in them. And then also you have effects that are even more pernicious, that may not be immediately obvious. There are some, some of these non native plants can actually change to soil chemistry itself, to actually block native species from growing and make it even easier for them to out compete. And so then the net effect that you end up here is just an overall decline in diversity and support for our native animals, and, you know, a reduction of available space that our native flora species can thrive in.”

Vance also commented on how these species spread, even when it may appear like they are not.

“They keep growing back, and people keep planting them. So, we keep seeing them escaping. A lot of invasives that enter natural areas were not planted there deliberately, but they have escaped from landscaping, and people may think their invasives, like burning bush and such are not escaping. I guarantee they are. You’re just not seeing that escape happening right in front of you. You know that with berries, that berry is getting carried several yards over, or even a county over, and being dropped there and spreading it, and so that’s that’s a big problem that we get with invasives,” remarks Vance.

The easy spread of these invasives is part of the reason why they are extremely hard to control. Currently at Monroe Lake, there is no formal program for the removal of these species. However, Vance still has hopes.

“We do what we can. We do have some volunteers working who’ve worked in the past on autumn olive in particular, and trying to tamp it down. I would love to have people who really want to go after bush honeysuckle. I got plenty for them to work on, certainly people. So you know, please contact me if that’s something you’re passionate about, because it is a matter, really, of just hours and hours, and you gotta keep going back and keep tackling it. And you know, unfortunately, we don’t have any staff who are dedicated just to that effort. And so we really have to rely on volunteers who are passionate about doing something in that area. And I’m always happy to find volunteers who would love to help kill an invasive species and get rid of the honeysuckle and the autumn olive and other stuff.”

More information on volunteering can be found at IN.gov/DNR under volunteer and internship opportunities. 

The Lake itself is not immune to its own set of invasive species.

Dave Kittaka, the District 5 fish management biologist for the DNR, said, “The predominant invasive fish species in Monroe Lake are Gizzard Shad and Common Carp.  Both of these species have established fish populations since the mid-1980s.” 

Invasive Asian carp, more specifically silver carp, have been found in Salt Creek, directly downstream of Monroe Lake’s dam. Craig Jansen, the invasive carp biologist for the Indiana DNR, spoke more on the carp.

“There’s four invasive carp species: silver carp, black carp, bighead carp and grass carp. Of those four, basically all of them got brought into the US in the 60s and 70s, and they primarily got brought here for aquaculture purposes, so like fish farms down south. They brought them in to help clean up water quality and various issues in those fish farm ponds. And then, you know, over the years, floods happen and levees can break, and fish got out, started making their way up the Mississippi River. Today, silver carp are definitely the biggest issue. They’re the ones that jump. They’re in super high numbers.”

Kittaka also spoke on the carp stating, “To date, we have only documented 3 Grass Carp and have not documented other invasive carp species like the Silver and Bighead Carp.  Silver and Bighead carp can be found below the dam in Salt Creek, which is too close for comfort.” 

And too close for comfort is correct. Jansen states this concern clearly: “Whenever they can swim there, they can eventually get there.”

Similar to the terrestrial invasives, these carp were introduced into the ecosystem by humans, and humans still play a key role in their spread.

“Initially they were just brought here, so it was kind of a man made introduction, not intentional, obviously, but they did get out. One of the big ways that they can be spread is through what we call bait bucket introductions, so anglers could be cast netting. They’ll use just a net. They’ll throw it out to catch bait fish, so that they can take those bait fish, put them on a hook and then go fish for whatever else they’re fishing for, catfish or bass or crappie. Well, at the end of the day, if they still have minnows in their bucket, they may just dump them out wherever they’re at, and if they caught something like silver carp, and then they transported it to a different water body, and then at the end of the day, they dumped it out – that could be a potential pathway to spread these things,” says Jansen.

Kittaka also commented, “Small Invasive Carp look just like small Gizzard Shad, and it would be easy for anglers to mistakenly use them for bait and release them into the lake.” 

The Indiana DNR also has some regulations in place that are specifically aimed at limiting the spread of these invasive carp. Jansen talks: 

“So Indiana addressed that fairly early on. You’re not supposed to use a cast net within 500 yards of a dam, because a lot of bait fish congregate right below dams. And in the case of like Lake Monroe, a lot of folks maybe would go down there throw a cast net to catch a bunch of what they thought were shad or or other minnow species and and they would catch them, put them in their bucket, and haul them up to the lake to go fish for bass or crappie or whatever. And then, you know, that would obviously be a potential way that carp could get into the lake, if somebody dumped some live minnows out that weren’t from the lake itself.”

Kittaka also states, “Prior to this it was common for anglers to net bait below the Monroe Lake Dam and use them for bait in the lake.” 

In addition to this regulation, carp cannot be hauled alive. Jansen summarizes: 

“Another thing that we’ve done years ago was basically say you cannot haul carp alive. So that kind of regulations to make sure that, or to try to stop people from spreading these fish. So, you know, there are certain cultures that want to see live fish in a fish market, to take it home to eat it. They want to see that fish live first. And if you do that, if you’re allowed to do that, and have live fish that would be in a fish market, and those be invasive carp, obviously that’s not an ideal situation, because if, if one would get out or or be intentionally released, or whatever that could cause issues.”

In other states, where the issue of invasive carp has increased rapidly, other carp management tactics have been employed. Jansen talks about some management initiatives being done in surrounding states.

“Aside from those regulations we’re doing, there’s other states that have been doing a lot of stuff to lower and limit the spread of carp. So for example, like Illinois, there’s that electric barrier that you may or may not have heard of. It’s been in the news over the years, and they’re trying to get a new project off the ground. It’s called The Brandon Road Project, to put more of a permanent type barrier between Lake Michigan and then the Illinois River and using different technologies to keep fish from moving up through that stretch of the river. And they’ve done a similar one of that down in Kentucky, at Barkley Lake. Kentucky and Barkley Lakes are like multi billion dollar recreational fisheries, and there’s a lot of concern down there about carp getting in there. So they put up an experimental fish fence that puts out CO2 bubbles like it basically makes a bubble curtain, and then it also emits some sound and light. And since silver carp are very sensitive to those things, it has been having an impact on limiting the number of silver carp to come up in there.”

These initiatives are expensive and were not guaranteed to work during their installation. So, are they working? 

“So Kentucky hit it really hard in the Kentucky and Barkley lakes, because there’s a lot of bass angling and crappie it’s a really popular fishery, and I’ve heard a lot of reports from fishermen down there that are saying that, yeah, they don’t see nearly the amount of carp that they that they used to. The data from the commercial fishery itself, the fishermen are having to put a lot more effort in to find and remove carp. So we are starting to see those impacts. Obviously, it takes several years to to start whittling away that population, but if you get a barrier in like that, that fish fence that I was talking about, and then you add harvest above that fish fence,  you keep the majority of fish out. Then with harvesting the fish that are in the system, you can have an impact. And we’re starting to see that the Illinois River as well, Illinois has put a lot of fishing pressure in, like downstream of that barrier. So that way you just kind of keep that source population knocked back. So obviously, the less fish you have knocking at the gate of that electric barrier, the less likely they are to pass through the electric barrier. So and their data is looking pretty good, they’re starting to have a their harvest is fairly steady, but they’re fishermen are having a little harder time finding fish and starting to notice some changes there in the population,” responds Jansen.

This indicates that these initiatives are working, but it also highlights how these invasive species have the potential to reshape an entire ecosystem.

Monroe Lake is a beautiful body of water that has something for everyone, even where you least expect it. 

“You know, Monroe is the third property that I have worked at in the Indiana State Parks. I was at Spring Mill. I spent a little bit of time at McCormick’s Creek as well. Monroe is the first reservoir property that I’ve worked at, and the reservoirs are unique in our state park system, because we do try to take a little bit more of a hands on wildlife management approach. The areas of our property that I particularly like are our wildlife management areas. They’re just, I really love field habitats. I really do, particularly when they’re not filled with autumn olive and those areas, I think, you know, in the fall to go out and they’re just covered with Goldenrod and asters and some of the sunflowers. And you know, you’ve got that that fall, the fall sunlight coming across, and it’s just, it’s beautiful out there. And I like those areas. I think those are under-appreciated areas of our property and but for me there, that’s my favorite spots,” shares Vance.

Kittaka spoke on his experience saying “I have worked on Monroe Lake since 2004. I live in Bedford and raised 3 kids fishing and swimming at Monroe Lake.  Managing the fish population on this lake for all these years I have seen the highs and lows that come with these programs and also seen the things mother nature can do and how the lake reacts to those events.”

However, not all thoughts on the Lake hold the same sentiment. Miller shares some of her personal thoughts on Monroe Lake: 

“Honestly, Lake Monroe is a beautiful body of water that provides one of the opportunities to enjoy water recreations of various kinds, but it’s not that special to me. In fact, the development of this body of water is really no different than the invasive plants that you asked about earlier. While it is a wonderful natural attraction for hundreds of thousands of people to our area, offering an incredible boost to our local economy, the lake itself is not native. It is man made and was placed into a location that was never really intended for it to be as with invasive species. We have yet to see the outcome of the lake, cost to maintain loss of native wetlands, possible flooding in the future. All we can do is enjoy its beauty and nature at the moment and do what we can to protect it from where it’s actually at today.”

Here is just another example of humans drastically altering their environment.

The spread of invasive species is just one reason that conservation is desperately needed. Individuals like Vance, Kittaka, Jansen, and Miller focus on these efforts to study and ensure that our ecosystems are protected.

Miller describes her own connection with conservation as “instilled in her by her parents from a young age. They told her, taught her and showed her how to be a good steward of the land through gardening, food preservation, walks in the woods, health management of the herd, and protection of the grazing and forested lands.  These life lessons laid the foundation, proving to be a valuable segway into her position at soil and water.” 

As for Jansen’s passion for tackling carp, he speaks on his own personal path: 

“Well, I guess I didn’t really get into the job initially for carp. It just sort of happened. I guess I started here at Indiana DNR about 12 and a half years ago, and I was a big rivers assistant biologist at the time. Within a year or two, I got promoted to the big rivers biologist. And basically since that time, I was the big rivers biologist for like, six or seven years. And during that time, we just kept getting more and more involved in all this carp work, because all the states were also concerned. We actually, in the Ohio River Basin, started getting a lot more federal funding for tackling this problem. So we kept getting more and more funding, and I kept getting more and more involved in carp. And then in 2020 we got a big pot of money, and it was enough to justify, like us [the Indiana DNR], starting our own work unit. So we hired dedicated staff, so I kind of just sort of transitioned into that carp role, and now I’ve got two assistant biologists, and we just hired a program director that is overseeing some of our carp harvest initiatives. We’re really trying to ramp up and promote the carp harvest in Indiana. There’s a few barriers that we’re trying to get past to get more people in here and let more carp harvest occur. So yeah, it was kind of just this natural progression of getting more involved.”

Jansen also states:

“I mean, personally, it’s, it’s nice to finally, like, whenever you tell people that you’re dealing with invasive carp, they’re just like, yeah, go get them. Like, it’s always a positive reception. You don’t get that sometimes. In the other biologist roles, there’s a lot of anglers that are never happy with the fishery, and they’re always complaining. And with carp, there’s not a whole lot of people complaining about things other than wanting to get more of them out of the rivers.”

And after all the work these individuals have put in to tackle the problem of invasive species, they deserve some praise. Their efforts have begun to address the dangers of invasive species in our waterways, protect our ecosystems, and share their knowledge with their community.

More information on the invasive species in Monroe Lake and surrounding areas is available at IN.gov/DNR.

For WFHB News, I’m Amelia Bucher.

WFHB Correspondents Tom Muckerheide and Laurie Frederickson

Dallas Evans, the new director of WonderLab, brings over 20 years of experience in museum exhibits and programs. He previously served as the Lead Curator of Nature & Science at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis before working as a Community Development Educator in Purdue University’s extension department. Evans highlights that WonderLab’s mission is to make science accessible to all and will continue its efforts to be inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, and sustainable. He also emphasizes the crucial role the community plays in WonderLab’s success—from donations and memberships to volunteers and interns—and appreciates the welcoming, fun environment created by all those involved with WonderLab.

As the Russia-Ukraine War continues to unfold, the impacts are felt far beyond the borders of Eastern Europe. WFHB correspondent Mackenzie Lionberger spoke with policy experts at Indiana University and a student with family in Ukraine to explore the personal and geopolitical dimensions of this ongoing crisis.

By: Annika Harshbarger

Dr. Ira Helfand, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient is set to speak at First United Church at 7 p.m. on March 26th about “The Prevention of Nuclear War”.

The speech is sponsored by the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and a variety of others. Music by Carrie Newcomer and Robert Meitus will open the speech.

In today’s feature report Helfand gives a sneak peak to one issue that will be discussed. What would happen if a nuclear weapon was used on a major city today.

Press the play button above to hear more.

Helfand: “We don’t have an adequate popular understanding of the need to address this issue. The experts tell us we are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been, closer than we were during the Cold War, we’re not acting that way, and we need to start acting that way.”

Helfand: “My name is Ira Helfand I’m a retired emergency room doctor, and I was a co founder and past president of the organization Physicians for Social Responsibility, I’ve also served as the president of our global Federation, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and serve on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish nuclear weapons and most importantly, I think I’m a member of the steering committee of the back from the brink campaign here in the United States, which we’ve launched to bring about change in US Nuclear Policy.”

Harshbarger: “On March 26th at 7 pm Dr. Ira Helfand will be speaking at First United Church about how to prevent nuclear war. His explanation of what would happen if a nuclear weapon was used I think best illustrates the power these weapons hold.”

Helfand: “A lot of people have seen pictures of Hiroshima, and that’s kind of the standard we have in our minds. And Hiroshima is and Nagasaki are they’re very powerful demonstrations of how destructive these weapons can be. But again, we have to understand how small they are compared to current weapons. The most important thing to know about both Hiroshima and Nagasaki is they do not begin to prepare us for how much damage a modern weapon can do if there’s a war between the United States and Russia, a major target city like Chicago or New York is going to get hit, not with one Hiroshima sized bomb, but with anywhere from five to 10 to 15, maybe 20 weapons, each of which will be six to 50 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

I use a model of a single, very large explosion, 20 megatons, 20 million tons. The damage I will describe to you in a second is actually an underestimate, because you cause more damage by using 15 small bombs spread out over the area trying to destroy than one great big explosion.

But within a 1,000th of a second of the detonation of this bomb, a fireball forms, reaching out for two miles in every direction, four miles across within this area, everything is vaporized, the buildings, the trees, the people, the upper level of the earth disappears to a distance of four miles in every direction, the explosion generates winds greater than 600 miles per hour. That’s stronger than a strong tornado. Mechanical forces of that magnitude destroy anything that human beings can build to a distance of six miles in every direction. The heat is so intense that automobiles melt. And to a distance of 16 miles in every direction, the heat is still so intense that everything flammable burns, plastic, wood, gasoline, heating oil, paper, it all ignites, and you get hundreds of thousands of fires, which over the following 30 minutes or so, coalesce into a giant Firestorm, like a sea of fire, 32 miles across, covering over 800 square miles. Within that entire area, the temperature rises to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. All of the oxygen is consumed and every living thing dies.

This kind of destruction will take place in every major city in both the United States and Russia. If there’s a nuclear war between us and if NATO gets involved, most of the great cities in Canada and Europe will be destroyed in the same way. The people who survive these explosions and fires will live in a world that is absolutely unimaginable to us. None of the things that we depend on to survive will be available. And in months following this war, the vast majority of people who survive this initial attack in the United States and Russia and Europe and Canada will also die from radiation poisoning, from starvation, from epidemic disease, from exposure and to just carry down a little bit further. This is only what happens in the countries that fight the war. But this is a global catastrophe. These firestorms would lift in the case of a war between the United States and Russia, 150 million tons of soot into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun, dropping temperatures across the entire Earth, an average of 18 degrees Fahrenheit. In the interior regions of North America, like Indiana the temperatures will drop 45 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. These conditions will persist for the best part of the decade, and under these conditions, which we have not seen anything this cold on Earth since the last ice age. All of the ecosystems that have evolved since that ice age will collapse. Food production will stop. And according to that same study that I mentioned before from the journal Nature, in 2022 in the first two years, 6 billion people, three quarters of the human race will starve to death. But we are not talking about, you know, a horrible disaster that kills a quarter of a million people in one city. We’re talking about the complete obliteration of human civilization and the possible extinction of our species. And we have to understand, I didn’t make this stuff up to scare you. This is this is the danger we live with every day that we allow these weapons to continue to exist. And that’s what we’re talking about.

The good news, the flip side of all this is that none of this has to happen. Nuclear weapons aren’t a force of nature. It’s not as though an asteroids coming at us. There’s nothing we can do. They are little machines that we’ve built with our with ourselves, with our own hands. We know how to take them apart. We are simply lacking the political will to disband the 12,000 that remain. And that’s really the purpose of this educational campaign that we’re engaged in, to alert people to the danger, the fact that really can happen, the fact that it doesn’t have to happen, and the fact that it’s up to us to make sure that it doesn’t happen, because if we don’t take action, it is going to happen.”

Harshbarger: “For WFHB this has been Annika Harshbarger.”

Host Zero Roze spoke with Nathan Ferreira, local housing agency administrator, about impacts of federal job cuts, funding freezes and restructuring now being implemented by the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Nathan is both Executive Director of the Bloomington Housing Authority (BHA) and the Executive Director of the Summit Hill Community Development Corporation (SHCDC), a nonprofit entity created by the Housing Authority to implement Summit Hill Community Land Trust, a planned neighborhood of homes being built on land that is retained by SHCDC as a means to lower the price of homes built upon the land trust property on Bloomington’s Northwest side.

Roze and Ferreira discuss how local childcare facilities, paired with low-income housing units could be affected by cuts to HUD (Housing and Urban Development) and other regional entities involved in providing logistical and financial support for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) and housing created under RAD Project Based Vouchers, a new form of private-public partnership that BHA turned to some years ago in lieu of adequate funding for upkeep of their public housing.

They touch upon how units and facilities in the Crestmont Community neighborhood and the new Hopewell development look to be in jeopardy, and the public statement put out by BHA to inform the public about their present circumstance and discuss planned efforts to convey their concerns and needs to elected representatives in a trip to Washington, D.C.

To learn more about these organizations, click here.

Feature by Laurie Frederickson

The American Immigration Council estimates that more than 400,000 immigrants and refugees reside in Indiana. But recent state and national-level policy changes have left immigrants and refugees feeling uncertain and concerned for their futures. The 2025 Indiana State Legislative Session has seen a record-breaking 15 immigration-focused proposals, in addition to the 10 executive orders already signed into action by the Trump Administration. The effects of these policy changes have already been felt by a number of families and individuals, leaving many uncertain and afraid.

Sylvia McNair is on the Board of the Refugee Support Network, a Bloomington-based organization that is dedicated to supporting refugees and asylum seekers in adjusting to life in our community. She explained these policy changes came with almost immediate effects. 

“[T]here’s a story about a family who was waiting in a refugee camp to come to America, and the grandmother, who’s in her middle 70s, late 70s, somehow, because of the way the wheels turn, was told she could come first. And then she came, and of course, assumed the rest of her family, her children and grandchildren, would be following right behind, and that they would be able to all live together. Well, when Donald Trump put the brakes on the refugee resettlement program, the rest of the family was told they could not come. So here is a senior citizen woman, by herself, in a brand-new country and a culture that she knows nothing about,” said McNair.

Exodus Refugee, a Bloomington based Asylum-Seeker and Refugee support organization, featured a number of similar stories on their Instagram account. Omar, whose family was set to arrive on February 3rd, said “I don’t know how I’m going to tell them. I don’t know how I’m going to share this with them.” Pearl, another refugee receiving assistance from Exodus, pleaded, “But there’s still hope, right? We have been in the dark for so long. I want to know that there is still hope.”

Cassandra Sanborn, Director of Development at Exodus, explained how devastating it was to make calls to clients whose families would no longer be able to enter the US.

“I know we had called and told you that your family members were scheduled to come in February, but now they’re not going to make it anymore, because they’re not allowed to come to the country anymore,” said Sanborn.

***

It’s challenging to anticipate exactly what the results of so many simultaneous policy changes will be. Bloomington-based Immigration Attorney Christie Popp shares what she sees as the greatest implications of Trump’s executive orders. 

“[O]ne sets forth new enforcement priorities. So, it rescinds the enforcement priorities of the Biden administration and sets forth new enforcement priorities. It expands what’s called expedited removal. It calls for the detention of basically everybody who is in removal proceedings, which is what we call deportation proceedings. It reviews funding to non-governmental organizations that work with immigrants and limits the use of humanitarian categories like Temporary Protected Status and Humanitarian Parole,” said Popp. 

“The people who will really be affected are people who have no legal status whatsoever, no immigration status, or maybe they have immigration status, but it is in a category of temporary status that has been ended by the Trump administration, or they recently came into the United States,” she said. 

Many have expressed concerns that these executive orders are overreaching and infringing upon basic rights. For Popp, the expansion of expedited removal is one such area of concern.

 “Expedited removal is the removal of immigrants from the United States without due process. . .Previously, expedited removal was limited to within 100 miles of the border and two weeks or 14 days of entry. . .Now, expedited removal has been expanded to include everyone, everywhere in the United States who has been here for two years or less. . .so basically, the ICE officer is the prosecutor, the judge, and the jury in that sense,” she said

Popp also noted that the new executive orders overturned what the Biden Administration had labeled Humanitarian Parole. Under Humanitarian Parole, the United States welcomed people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine, and Afghanistan.

“[M]illions of people have been allowed in on these parole statuses. The Trump administration has rescinded the memos that allowed and the processes that allowed for parole. And parole is not very old. It’s less than two years. So, most of those people will be subjected to expedited removal. So, these are people who were welcomed here by our government, who have lawful status, who have now had that status rescinded, and are now going to be subjected, possibly to expedited removal if they have not filed for asylum already,” she said.

Refugee Support Network’s McNair highlights that it is not just national policies that are having an impact, but that state policies can also carry serious implications. 

“Oh, it’s just terrifying. . .there are 15 bills in front of the legislature in the state of Indiana, which are anti-immigrant and anti-immigration. This is an unprecedented number of anti-immigration bills in a legislative session. It’s so overwhelming. House Bill 1399, for example, makes it a crime, a crime, to live in Indiana as an undocumented person. . .Governor Braun and Attorney General Rokita have just passed this law that says police officers must always report everything to ICE, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So, these are the kinds of things that are happening in the Indiana State Legislature that are so anti-immigrant,” said McNair. 

Popp echoes these concerns, adding that Governor Mike Braun has issued an executive order that “seems like he’s seeking to order the Indiana State Investigation and Law Enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE.” She adds that Trump’s view of immigration as a “military invasion” could lead to an unprecedented expansion of government powers. 

“[T]here’s a little-known provision in the Immigration Act that has literally never been. Enforced that would allow the federal government to basically deputize state officials to become immigration officials. Now this is super problematic, because I can tell you, just from talking to ICE agents, from talking to immigration agents, that their knowledge of immigration is pretty limited. They go through some training, but they don’t know the full scope of immigration. Now that these are people who have received training in immigration to deputize and allow local law enforcement to do immigration enforcement is pretty dangerous. I think there’s going to be quite a bit of racial profiling,” Popp said. 

Given this push for deportation, it is important for folks to take extra precautions to protect themselves. Exodus has been recommending that clients carry a copy of their work permit or green card wherever they go. McNair urged impacted people, such as IU students on green cards, to be hypervigilant and minimize risks. 

“[T]o IU students and to all, all of our immigrant friends in Bloomington, live very carefully. Be very careful, and don’t take unnecessary risks. Don’t draw attention to yourself. . .unless it’s something you feel passionately about. But be very careful with how you live, and don’t take unnecessary risks.”

Popp wanted to remind people of their rights in the event that they come into contact with ICE officers. Popp shared some practical advice on interacting with ICE officers. 

“If ICE shows up people, they are law enforcement. So, you people should not run, they should not resist. They shouldn’t do anything like that. But they do have the legal right to not speak to ICE. So, if an ICE officer questions, then they have the right to remain silent. Now they may have to say their name under Indiana law, but they don’t have to say where they’re from or offer any papers to show that they have lawful status. They have the right to remain silent, and they have the right to ask the officer if they’re free to go, if ICE shows up at someone’s house again, unless they have a search warrant or an arrest warrant signed by a judge, they do not have to be let into the house, so people do not have to open their doors to ICE. They can ask for the ICE officer to slide the warrant under the door, but they do not have to let ICE in. They do not have to go with ICE if it’s just an administrative warrant. Finally, if ICE shows up at someone’s workplace, it’s the same rules. You shouldn’t run, you shouldn’t resist, but you don’t have to speak to them, you don’t have to offer anything other than your name,” said Popp.

Even in light of the uncertainty, Exodus has been encouraging their clients to try and maintain a sense of normalcy by continuing to go to work, school, and doctor’s appointments. Cassandra Sanborn, Director of Development said

“We’ve had clients call and say, ‘should I be going to work? Is it safe to go to the doctor? Should I send my kids to school?’ And our answer to those things is yes. We want you to go to work, we want you to go to the doctor, we want you to send your kids to school. You should still be doing those things, but it’s absolutely understandable that folks are wondering about that and that they are experiencing that fear in their daily life,” said Sanborn.

***

Though it is easy to feel powerless among all this policy change, Popp, McNair, and Sanborn all emphasized the importance of contacting your representatives. 

Popp said to “[W]ork with your local governments. Work with the state, so go and talk to your legislators at the General Assembly and talk about how these measures are harmful to your neighbors, to your employees, etc.,”

McNair acknowledges that while it may feel at times like no one is listening, speaking out is the most powerful tool we have.

“[C]ontinue speaking out and standing up for this issue. Write, call your representative. I know I don’t do that enough. I’m the first to confess that I don’t do that enough, because it feels like nobody’s listening in Indianapolis, in our legislature, it feels like no one’s listening. But I have to believe that some of the aides for the elected officials might be paying a little bit of attention to emails and phone messages about supporting supporting immigrants in Indiana”

Sanborn recommended talking to local officials, emphasizing to “say thank you when they say that they still want our community to be welcoming for refugees”

A number of local officials, including Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson and City Council President Hopi Stosberg, have all affirmed their commitment to supporting refugees. Stosberg opened the January 22nd City Council meeting by saying:

“Members of our community have all been incredibly welcoming, and I just want to highlight this piece that is Bloomington and I for one hope that we can continue to be that welcoming vision to people who come into our community, regardless of where it is that they’re coming from,” said Stosberg. 

Stosberg, who has previously volunteered with Exodus Refugee, spoke to the importance of empathy. 

“[O]ne thing that’s important to remember is that immigrant refugees are like, they’re all just people too, right? And they’re all just trying, at the base to, like, establish a life for themselves, and that makes them no different than anybody else, and so just kind of keeping that in mind, and a lot of the national rhetoric like It, you know, it centers around, say, criminality or highlights, cultural differences that are either completely untrue or blown out of proportion. And it can, you know, it’s like breeding in this culture of fear of the other, and so people just kind of recognizing that that’s not accurate necessarily, and that it takes getting to know somebody and just giving people equal chance and not buying into stereotypes that they might get exposed to on the media,” said Stosberg.

Sanborn notes her gratitude for officials like Stosberg who have spoken up in support of refugees and immigrants. 

“We are so thrilled whenever we hear officials saying that they still want to continue to support immigrants and refugees in particular. I think continuing to say that publicly is really important so that people continue to hear messages that this is a safe community. This is a place where we want people to know that they are welcome and that they are safe. . .I think it’s great when local officials stand up and say, hey, is this the role of local police, or even saying, like IUPD did that up in Indianapolis, that they’re not going to participate in immigration enforcement because, quite frankly, they have a lot of other things on their plate that they need to be doing. So, I think continuing to make statements that they are supportive of this population, continuing to take positions on things is really helpful in order to make people in our community feel safe,” said Sanborn.

These kinds of comments, Sanborn believes, are powerful because they humanize and shed light on the refugee experience. The most crucial thing at times like this is to approach issues with understanding, and as she says, to “arm ourselves with facts.”

“I’ve had so many clients tell me over the years that they don’t want people to look at them with fear. And when misinformation gets out of hand, it’s really easy for people to be afraid of immigrants and of refugees. And so, when we refuse to be afraid, and when we say kind things, when we smile at people, when we see them in line at the store with us, or when we are welcoming to the people that we may be in class with or that we may be working with. That really goes a long way to letting people know that we want them here and we do welcome them,” said Sanborn

McNair echoes this, highlighting that refugees do not take refuge by choice. 

“No one chooses to leave everything behind—everyone, their families, their homes, their careers—they leave because they aren’t safe. So I will just tell you. I would love to share with you that the people I have met through the Refugee Support Network in Bloomington are some of the bravest and strongest people I’ve ever met. They are grateful. They are kind. They want to work and pay tax. They want to be part of our community and volunteer at their children’s schools and take food to the mosque on Friday evenings or whatever their faith tradition is, they want to be part of our community, and they are so grateful for even the smallest things,” said McNair. 

Council member Stosberg continuously emphasized how important kindness and empathy are, explaining that while policies might change, the character of our community members will not. 

“I think overall, for the most part, it’s down to individuals being nice, being moral, being good humans. And I don’t think that national legislation suddenly makes somebody who’s generally a good, decent person who is kind to their neighbors suddenly not be good, decent, and kind anymore,” said McNair

She encourages us to come together as a community and support each other. 

“[R]emembering to lean on people who you know you can trust and who you know love you and who you know will support you. It takes a community. And I think that there are a lot of really, really strong components in Bloomington of communities of support.” said McNair

Our community has multiple resources for support. The Refugee Support Network aids refugees and asylum seekers, and information can be found at bloomingtonrefugees.com. Information regarding Exodus Refugee, including how to sign up to volunteer, may be found at exodusrefugee.org. Indiana Legal Services has a toll-free hotline providing free assistance to folks with limited English proficiency and may be reached at (866) 964-2138. A number of organizations may be able to provide free legal assistance, Indiana Legal Services and the Human Rights Commission who can be reached at Monroe County Human Rights Commission.

Feature by Tom Muckerheide

These introductory months of 2025 have been a chaotic time for many within the state of Indiana. The newly assembled State Senate has put forward a slew of bills, numbering in the 500s at the time of writing. But while the committees of Monroe County and the City of Bloomington escape the frigid air to discuss the taxes and infrastructure, voices from the least acknowledged of our community fall by the wayside. For the unhoused and unprotected, this cold weather has made it harder to stay safe and seek refuge in the rapidly filling shelters. Tammy, a 51 year old woman without a permanent shelter, relies on her dog Sophie to get through the cold nights.

“The whole time I get up, I walk around so I can keep some body heat. Plus I have Sophie and me. We sleep together. So we stay close together for body heat, like we put off body heat together, and then I put blankets under us and cardboard under us, and then blankets over us, of course, and just try to stand in the blankets and on top of cardboard. In a dry area–try to find somewhere with less wind, like on a building that’s either abandoned or closed for the night, like on the side of it, maybe where it’s not as high, because sometimes that wind is terrifying,” Tammy said.

WFHB News spoke with Tammy at the Shalom Homeless Center of Bloomington following the string of snowstorms and low temperatures that hit Bloomington in January of this year. With freezing temperatures dangerously low, Tammy and others like her are reeling from the effects. Leaders of nonprofit shelters say that city and state policies have the power to make things even harder, or even easier, depending on the voices they listen to.

Among the voices advocating for solutions to these problems is Reverend Forrest Gilmore, the executive director at Beacon inc. He’s observed the influx of admission into shelters around Bloomington as a result of the cold.

“Our facilities are packed to the gills, so to speak. Much more people seeking shelter than they normally would in warmer times, and both at the day center and the overnight shelter, we’re seeing so much more need and demand for that,” said Gilmore.

Beacon is a 501(c)3 organization committed to offering on demand and lasting help for those suffering from homelessness. Their primary base of operations, the Shalom Homeless Center, operates Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Beyond Shalom, Beacon offers a number of services such as the Friend’s Place Overnight Shelter and Phil’s Kitchen. Despite the strain, these services have been of tremendous help to the guests at the Shalom Center in light of recent weather. WFHB spoke with a 66 year old woman other guests affectionately called “Momma.” She said she was grateful for the services of Beacon.

“You just bundle up. That’s all you can do. You want to live? I mean, I’ve got pneumonia now, but I’m living. I mean, I’m 66 years, I’ll be 67 this month, and I’m still living. So if I can do it, anybody can do it. I don’t live in a tent, though. Thank God. I stay at Friends [Friend’s Place Overnight Shelter]. And if it wasn’t for this place and for Friends, or I should say, Beacon, I wouldn’t be around,” said Momma.

While Beacon has seen the increase in demand driven by snow and dangerous temperatures, other shelters have identified different ways the cold can exacerbate homelessness in our community. Emily Pike is the executive director of New Hope for Families, a partner of Beacon and other homeless initiatives in Bloomington focused on housing for families with children. She said that it was more common that summers present an increase in unhoused families.

“The weather doesn’t have as strong an impact on family homelessness as it does on [other] folks because at New Hope, we are committed to making sure that no one sleeps outside as a family. So there are no families that we are aware of sleeping outside tonight […] Really, all year round, we see a lot of calls and the summer tends to be the busiest time for us,” Pike said.

Pike highlights the effects of winter in worsening the situation for low income tenants. Expensive utility bills and Bloomington’s lease cycle are among the primary causes of subsequent summer evictions and housing displacement.

“A leading cause of, well, one leading cause of people unable to afford to continue in their current living situation is high utility costs in the winter. And so if you couldn’t afford your heating bill in February, probably by May is when you are in a situation where it’s untenable and you’re going to need to find something else” Pike said.

Cinda O’Connor is the longest-running volunteer at the Shalom Center. While she has helped the shelter in a variety of ways, her favorite has been right at the hospitality desk. She had this to say about her experience on the ground during these freezing months.

“We have big bins–socks, gloves, hats. The glove box has been empty–even with all of our wonderful donations that come in–the gloves, scarves, hats have just been flying out here because everybody needs that, but we’ve had a good supply of hand warmers and the various things that they need. But it’s amazing how quickly they come in and out,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor feels that the cold is a trying time for the shelter and the guests. While she is excited about the work Beacon is doing, she told us that this will continue to be an important time of the year for shelters for as long as there are people in need.

“I have noticed that, you know, those really cold days, that it’s just a mood that you see there on those days. People, ordinarily, people are so grateful and very nice about coming in and accepting our services, but the mood gets a little testier during those cold, cold days, because there’s just not much we can do to help them on their end.” said O’Connor.

The cold streak is not the only thing impacting the people of Bloomington without housing. Executive Director Gilmore has spoke on the broader upward trend of homelessness.

“We’ve seen something that we haven’t seen in a long time or ever. I’ve been with Beacon for 15 years now, and we’re seeing a level of street homelessness that we haven’t ever seen. This is happening in cities across the country and even in more rural areas as well, and it’s kind of baffling. I don’t know if anyone fully understands why, but we’re seeing a significant uptick in street homelessness, and so this is presenting a huge challenge in terms of taxing already highly taxed services. Services that were already at their edge are suddenly seeing demand that’s even more. We want homelessness to be going down, not up, and we’re not seeing that right now. So I would say we’re not prepared. As we do and many others are doing, we’re doing our absolute best to deal with this change and need, but we’re already at the edge, so trying to continue to further push that edge is a great challenge.” Gilmore said.

The question asked by advocates has been how this increase has come about. While nothing concrete has passed the Indiana state senate, both the statehouse and the city of Bloomington’s initiatives on homelessness will have a crucial impact on the community.

The action items outlined in mayor Kerry Thomson’s 2024 housing plan include implementing recommendations from the 2020 Bloomington housing study, increasing transparency and public input in the creation of housing projects, and forging stronger partnerships with the county and state.

Both Forrest Gilmore and Emily Pike, among other issue leaders in the community, are a part of a team that outlined a housing action plan for 2024. This plan addresses what they see as the primary causes of homelessness and identifies immediate and long-term priorities for housing action. Their stated goal is to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50% by 2027 and 70% by 2030.

Despite Bloomington’s efforts at alleviating housing issues for the south central Indiana community, national and state legislation has been met with controversy by advocates for more available and affordable housing.

Reverend Gilmore said he and his team at Beacon are keeping a close eye on government policy on the national level. He’s been concerned about statewide bans on homelessness and actions necessitated by surviving without a home, such as street camping.

“There also is some talk about banning housing first programs and moving away from housing in general as a response to homelessness, and those are deeply concerning potential shifts in law. And so we’re watching that closely. And Kentucky, just recently, did pass both of those things in their crime bill,” Gilmore said.

Indiana legislators have also faced criticism over their homelessness initiatives, often charged with combating and eliminating the problem rather than helping it. The IndyStar reported that Democrats took firm opposition to House Bill 1662, which would have criminalized camping on public property had it not died due to controversy.

Senate Bill 157 is among the top pieces of legislation that concerns advocates. The bill, which on February 4th was referred to the House of Representatives, allows property owners greater power in managing and evicting squatters, which the bill defines as quote “an individual who occupies the property of another and who does not have and has never had: (1) a rental agreement; (2) permission of the owner; or (3) another legal interest in the property.” Critics have warned that this bill will worsen housing instability for those with low income and informal agreements with their landlord.

According to Reverend Gilmore, squatting as it pertains to seeking shelter in abandoned buildings is not the most common experience for people without permanent housing. More common is the occupation of woods or public property in Bloomington. Director Emily Pike was critical of the potential for this bill to put pressure on those in tenuous relationships with their landlord.

“Anytime someone is not protected by a lease, they are more vulnerable to homelessness. And so we see, already, a relatively large percentage of folks, I wouldn’t be able to ballpark it, but folks who don’t come from a formal lease, right? So they are staying with someone else and paying half the rent, but they’re not on the lease, or the other person owns the living situation, the trailer, or the house, or whatever, and that is a factor in episodes of homelessness already, and so I would imagine that making that easier… I can’t imagine that it would be great news,” said Pike.

Pike pointed to other ways government operations have created complex issues surrounding low income families and their ability to do what’s best for their child.

“Something that not everyone knows is that it is illegal to be homeless with your children. It’s considered child abuse or child neglect, right? Which makes sense, right? We don’t want children sleeping outdoors. On the other hand, the unintended consequence of that can be that families don’t ask for help when they need it, because they’re afraid that their children will be removed from their care,” Pike said.

Around a quarter of all people without housing on any given night are children. In her view, children are an underrepresented portion of those affected by homelessness, with governing bodies focusing on what we see on the streets rather than the reality for hundreds of thousands of people.

“And a huge percentage of people, something like 40% are adults not attached to families, but who are relatively stable and can be quickly helped back into housing. And then, there’s that small segment of folks who have sort of what we think of as the trifecta, which is a mental health problem and an addiction plus a physical health problem, and that’s what we call chronic homelessness. So they’ve been homeless for a long time. And so I think oftentimes when people think about what would be a solution, they are thinking about that person, and the intensive support that that person is likely to need. Most people who experience homelessness are not that person. Most people need some help to pay a deposit on a new place, and they need some help to find a place that they can afford in an ongoing way, and so I think that is always going to be the struggle when we talk about our elected officials,” Pike said.

Director Pike says that the cost of housing is a primary driver of homelessness in both the community and the country at large. Progress on that, she says, will be what allows us to reach a solution.

“A lot of times we think that homelessness is a problem that’s about mental health, or it’s a problem that’s about substance use, or it’s a problem about the job market, and certainly, all of those things are factors. But at its root, homelessness is a housing problem. When we look at places in the United States where we have a tremendous homelessness problem, we also have a tremendous housing affordability crisis, and so anytime that we are making it harder for people to be housed, we will be increasing the likelihood of a homeless problem,” Pike said.

One of the guests who agreed to speak with us at the Shalom Center, Tammy, experienced firsthand the difficulties of getting housing. She has no record of drug abuse or other medical problems, and she told us how she picks up litter she sees in public spaces around town. Despite this, she has been unable to hold an apartment.

“I’ve never been evicted from an apartment. I can’t get one. I’ve seen people come here and get three or four apartments while I’ve not had one […] Don’t make sense though, why would I not qualify? A 51 year old woman who’s been homeless for 13 years hasn’t had a place that’s not been evicted,” Tammy said.

The City of Bloomington reports that studies have found rental vacancy rates to be at around 3%, locking people like Tammy out of the opportunity to find permanent housing. Beyond quantity, the affordability of housing has also plagued city and county policy-makers. According to the United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, as of 2022, 51.9% of renters in Monroe County spend more than a third of their household income on the cost of housing, the 7th highest rate of cost burdened citizens in the nation.

Reverend Gilmore shares Pike’s commitment to tackling housing affordability as the root cause of homelessness for many.

“Homelessness is caused by housing challenges. So we know that if you look at the amount of substance use in a community, if substance use causes homelessness, we should see in communities with more substance use more severe substance addiction and things like that. We should see higher levels of homelessness, but we don’t actually see that. That doesn’t occur in our country, where we see the same thing with mental illness. If there was more mental illness and mental illness caused homelessness, we should be able to look in communities with higher levels of mental illness and go ‘there should be more homelessness here,’ and we don’t. We don’t see that, but we do see something across the country that’s really challenging. When communities have a low vacancy rate or a high median rent, we see really high homelessness in those areas. So that’s the underlying condition. It’s just that with homelessness, the housing market is terrible. Really, really difficult. And particularly difficult for people who are living in extreme poverty,” Gilmore said.

It is easy to see the esoteric language of our legislative bodies and the uncontrollable forces of winter as things which we must endure. But for the most vulnerable people in our community, enduring can be a matter of life or death. The Shalom Center and New Hope for Families are committed to providing effective solutions to housing problems beyond providing shelter. They provide meals, showers, laundry, mail processing, and other services designed to remove as many barriers to getting back into housing as possible. They also work closely with Indiana Legal Services and the HealthNet Bloomington Center to assist people in managing rental conflicts and costly bills.

“Really good homeless services, which are so important to our community, are far more sophisticated, in that they’re dealing with really professionalized approaches to helping people move out of homelessness and into homes, and that’s exceedingly important in our community. We need to be not just providing a meal or a bed but really working to get people into a stable, long term home,” Gilmore said.

Beacon Inc plans on constructing a new, 45,000 square foot facility that will combine permanent housing, temporary shelter, and food kitchen all into one.

“Some of the things I’m most excited about is that we’ll be bringing multiple partners together to co-locate their services in this building where we’ll be working together. Centerstone, Health Net, even the Bloomington Police Department and their downtown resource officers program and social workers program will be working out of the facility. All in common cause to help solve this problem and support people,” Gilmore said.

New Hope for Families is committed to making sure no families sleep outside. They have recently introduced a program that continues assistance to families after they have secured stable housing, following up on keeping their situations manageable and ensuring they don’t fall back into being unhoused. Ultimately, despite our current climate, Emily Pike has faith in the Bloomington community to help uplift our children and vulnerable families.

“The reason our community has New Hope is because our community has the values that made New Hope happen, right? New Hope is not a national brand. It rose out of five dedicated community leaders, none of whom had any expertise in homelessness, all of whom saw that there was a problem and said we would like to help. And that has been, and continues to be what makes New Hope possible,” Pike said.

Tammy and Momma are not holding out hope that the world will be easier for them, but as they struggle to help themselves and their friends under the burden of homelessness, they too are determined to improve their lives.

“I think things will be better as long as I stay positive and I push more forward, I don’t know if they’re gonna be better as far as the things provided. I hope so,” said Tammy.

“I’m still gonna live. It may not be easier, but I’ll still be living,” said Momma.

More about these nonprofits’ missions as well as how to volunteer and donate can be found at beaconinc.org, and NewHope4Families.org. You can learn more about other homeless shelters in Bloomington by visiting the homeless resources page at Bloomington.in.gov/homeless-resources.

Sources:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/20/indiana-homeless-criminal-misdemeanor-bill-house-republican-cicero-institute/79207490007/

https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/senate/157/details

https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills

https://www.newhope4families.org/

https://kerryforbloomington.com/platform

https://bloomington.in.gov/housing/affordable

https://beaconinc.org/

https://headinghomeindiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Housing-Action-Plan-Bloomington-Monroe-Co-August-2024.pdf

https://bloomington.in.gov/homeless-resources

https://overflowdata.com/demographic-data/national-data/county-level-analysis/housing-cost-county-22/

https://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/editorials/statehouse-squatter-bill-could-exacerbate-housing-instability-homelessness/article_d0d5c2b6-d81b-11ef-a22f-0f02235f10fa.html

While it may seem a little outdated, the primary source of energy in Indiana is coal. As the state faces pressure to reduce emissions and transition to renewable energy, it is important to consider the economic and social impact the transition will cause. What exactly will it take? And why has this transition taken so long?

“We are at a pivotal moment in time, if you will, with energy, and we are at, even though we’ve been at this fork in the road, we are really at the fork in the road right now, because we are at the point in time where we are deciding which path we are going to take. Are we going to embrace the clean energy revolution? Are we going to embrace lower cost, affordable energy and sustainable local jobs that can’t be outsourced by increasing investments in distributed generation, energy efficiency, those sorts of things, and renewable energy? Or are we going to continue down the same old, same old business path as usual, of investing in highly capital intensive thermoelectric plants that create wealth at the expense of the working class,” said Olson.

That was Kerwin Olson, the Executive Director of the Citizens Action Coalition, Indiana’s oldest and largest consumer and environmental advocacy organization.

When you think of coal, many images may come to mind, including power plants and plumes of thick, black smoke. Some think of greedy corporations or even corrupt politicians. You may even envision images of a Christmas with coal stuffed stockings. Regardless of what you think, coal is the main source of electrical energy in Indiana, and it is having detrimental consequences on our environment.

Coal power plants generate electricity by burning coal to create steam, which spins a turbine that creates electricity. In 2023, coal’s share of Indiana’s net generation ranked the 7th highest out of all US states. By capacity, 8 of Indiana’s 10 largest power plants are majority coal powered. By annual generation, 7 of its 10 are majority coal powered. In 2013, 84% of all power generation in the state was coal. By 2023, this number had reduced down to 45%.

Bituminous coal was first discovered in Indiana along the Wabash River in 1736. Coal mining began in Indiana in the middle 1800s using underground mining, a method of extracting minerals from beneath the Earth’s surface by creating tunnels or shafts. Steam-powered equipment began being used in the early 1900s to remove coal. Today, surface mining is the primary method of coal removal in Indiana which removes soil and rock to expose and extract minerals from the Earth’s surface.

Coal is used in a series of ways including manufacturing such as the creation of cement, carbon fibers, medicines, and tars, while also serving as a huge contributor to the state’s steel industry. All are valuable materials that account for peoples’ jobs, local economies, and most prominently energy production.

Coal power plants are considered baseload generation, meaning that they operate all day and all night, constantly supplying power to run Indiana’s homes and businesses. Coal is abundant, reliable, and affordable, which makes it a great energy for Hoosiers. So why is it such a huge problem? WFHB News spoke with Robyn Skuya-Boss, a Chapter Director in Indiana for the Sierra Club, to discuss some of coal’s impacts.

“And what we discovered when we were looking at how do we really take on climate change and the urgency of our climate crisis in order to really identify where we could best focusing our efforts and really making an impact in our overall greenhouse gas emissions. What we found is that our energy sector, when you really break it down, coal fired power plants, are one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. And of course, that corresponds with a lot of pollution that impacts public health, whether you’re looking at sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, things that contribute to smog and soot,” said Skuya-Boss.

The Sierra Club is an environmental organization that advocates for the protection of the planet, people, and places. They are one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in the United States. As for the urgency of these environment issues, Professor David Konisky, a professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Co-Direct of the Energy Justice Lab, discusses some concerns surrounding carbon emissions,

“Emissions are well documented that the emissions coming from the combustion of those sources produces greenhouse gases, the gases that are contributing to climate change. So to the degree that we are not moving quicker, more quickly away from these sources, we are just exacerbating the climate problem. And that not only has long-term implications, but we’ve begun to see that climate change is no longer just a future issue. It’s here with us and we’re seeing everything from extreme weather events to more severe storms, and that affects all of us.”

There are many misconceptions surrounding renewable energy, including it being too expensive, not able to meet energy demands, and that it is impractical on a large scale. So how can we answer some of the claims?

“I think maybe there’s a conventional wisdom that renewable sources of energy cannot supply a good amount of the electricity that we need, particularly as we try to electrify our economy to reduce our use of fossil fuels. But the reality is that in most parts of the United States, renewable energies are just as cost effective, if not less expensive than more traditional fossil fuels. And there are ways to solve the intermittency problem that people often will point to, that the sun isn’t always shining and the wind isn’t always blowing.  Those technologies now are really efficient. They work well with batteries and other types of technologies that make them potentially a really big part of the solution. And it’s really more a matter of political will, and it is technological complications,” said Konisky.

So if it is a matter of political will, what is currently being done? Skuya-Boss, talks about some current legislation attempting to be passed in Indiana.

“In Indiana, since 2005 we’ve reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 25% and that is progress that’s worth protecting. And right now what we are faced with particularly in House Bill 1007, which is a bill that puts in place some barriers to retiring coal plants, particularly by adding additional layers of regulatory steps that utility companies will have to jump through in order to follow through on their commitments to retire coal plants by 2030, and that is a bill that could potentially roll back some of that progress.”

Indiana House Bill 1007 deals with energy generation resources, something that has direct ties within the fight to stop the use of coal power. The bill proposes a 20% tax credit for any expenses created in the building of a small modular nuclear reactor or SMR in Indiana.

From the Citizens’ Action Coalition “House Bill 1007 provides the monopoly utilities with a massive tracker that forces customers to assume the financial risk and foot the bill for the SMR development costs before the utility has even sought approval from the IURC to construct an SMR, and even if the utility never seeks approval to construct an SMR and cancels the project.”

The bill, if passed, will reduce the regulatory oversight of utility companies when they file for approval of new generation resources – resources that support Big Tech companies and their initiatives. More specifically, the bill will make it more difficult for the utilities to retire coal power plants, which would significantly slow the clean energy transition in Indiana. Skuya-Boss discusses some of the motivation behind the bill.

“In part, the motivation for House Bill 1007 does appear to be really making Indiana an attractive state for new data centers, which are very, very energy intensive, and there is just a large amount of energy that is needed to meet the demand of these new this potential new economic development and ultimately what we don’t want to see is that progress we’ve made rolled back because we end up having to build out a lot more fossil fuel infrastructure in order to meet that demand. And so we do need a more measured approach and not sort of effort by state leaders and lawmakers to put the costs and the risks of building out things like small modular nuclear reactors, which have a huge price tag, and also potentially fast tracking things like developing new gas plants or rolling back coal plants that have already been committed to retire.”

It is also important to note that while the fight for SMRs is strong and they are being proposed as a solution to the energy crisis, zero are operating in the US. Olson comments,

“And they do that in Indiana by spending money. The more money they spend, the more money they make. And so they will always choose the most expensive option, because that delivers the highest returns to the company. And you don’t have to think too hard about it. The reason utility companies do not invest in renewable energy is because it delivers far less earnings, far less profit, far less capital. And so to make money, you gotta spend the money, and so they want to feed the coffers of Wall Street and choose capital intensive projects that, you know, the old, you know, Reagan line of trickle down. It’s all about wealth creation, period. Hard stop.”

The 2025 Indiana General Assembly is considered a “long” session due the creation of the biennial budget. While many different types of bills are being heard, this session is especially important for the environment. Olson talks about this importance and how it will affect consumers:

“This is a fairly brutal session if you’re a consumer and environmental advocate, but that’s largely been the case since super majority took over in 2012 and that’s largely been at the case at the Indiana State House, irrespective of which party is in charge, our environment, our natural resources, our democracy and our utility bills have always been under attack and under assault,” summarizes Olson.

Wealth and the environment have been intertwined from the very beginning. Olson said the people currently in-charge of our energy supply want to make money for the amount of work they are providing and power they are generating. It gets even messier when you involve the amount of political investors that enter the picture and begin to affect legislation. Olson remarks,

“It is about wealth creation and creating wealth in the marketplace. And you do that through building really expensive stuff, which is coal plants, gas plants, pipelines and nuclear reactors, those windmills, those solars, those new light bulbs, insulating homes, heat pumps, that stuff doesn’t deliver earnings to their shareholders, but boy, gas plants, new plants, coal plants, pipelines, sure do so.”

Olson puts it more simply,

“The more they spend, the more they make.”

So if this is the case, what can change? One way that is being proposed is to transition to a cleaner industrial process and transportation. Olson speaks more on this transition process:

“And the need to transition to clean energy for heating and cooling our homes and for our industrial processes is is critical, but as well as for transportation, as well. We certainly, we sometimes pigeon hole the climate conversation into only electricity and our light switch, but the impact climate because of transportation policies and other things is extraordinary, as well as industrial processes as well. So we have to not only decarbonize the grid, we have to do everything in our power to decarbonize industrial processes, heavy manufacturing, aviation, heavy transportation and everything else. It’s a heavy lift. But, you know, we can get it done,” added Olson.

The biggest roadblock we face today is not technology or resources—it’s political will. We have the science, the technology, and the economic data to prove that cleaner energy and greater efficiency save us all money, but politicians are still saying ‘no.’ And this problem isn’t just limited to energy—it stretches into healthcare, education, and every corner of our lives.

While it is easy to get discouraged in the face of the environmental crisis, it is important to

For the Sierra Club, Skuya-Boss comments,

“The easiest thing folks can do is just go to sierraclub.org/indiana. We have an upcoming events web page, so if you want to get outdoors with us, we have our upcoming outings on there. We also have our seeds of Democracy Program, which is really focusing on engaging around the state legislative session. And yeah, that’s going to be a really excellent way for people to kind of get involved with Sierra Club is just come, come hang out in the woods with us.”

More information on the Citizens Action Coalition can be found on their website, www.citact.org.

Over three years ago, Spencer Pride began it’s Banned Book Club, which was founded by member, Julie Parmenter. The group meets the fourth Thursday of every month to discuss books that have been banned or discussed of getting banned in red states. These books entail of historic biographies like The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank or 1984 by George Orwell. The group finds power within reading about different perspectives. Many of the books being targeted by book ban policies tell the stories of minorities and the LGBTQ+.