u/WFIU-WTIU-news

Bloomington city council wants to prohibit vehicles on Kirkwood Avenue as soon as this year.

A new ordinance designates blocks of Kirkwood from Walnut to Indiana as a dedicated pedestrian zone each year from April through November. The city wants to conduct a Kirkwood corridor study next year to identify issues.

Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson said the city did intensive research and had conversations with every business on Kirkwood. She said any changes would be premature.

City Council will hear the ordinance again June 3 for a second reading. The transportation commission plans to address the ordinance June 8.

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The City of Bloomington announced it would not renew its contract with Flock Safety in April, but other local agencies’ Flock cameras are still operating in Monroe County.

Flock Safety is known for its automated license plate reader cameras, and the technology is used by over 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, including the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Indiana University Police Department.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jeff Brown confirmed the agency has an active contract with Flock and uses the cameras to assist with active investigations. Brown said the agency once received data from the cameras operated by the Bloomington Police Department, but such sharing ended with the contract.

IUPD also appear to still be using the technology.

According to Flock audit logs obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, IUPD used Flock camera technology as recently as May 4 to investigate a vehicle theft.

IUPD Public Information Officer Julia Nowak declined an interview request and did not confirm the number of the department’s installed Flock cameras.

After protests against data from the cameras potentially being used to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the city opted to not renew its contract with for technology.

The city has restricted access to local Flock data to Bloomington police officers and data analysts as the city transitions away from the technology. The City of Bloomington did not respond to questions about whether installed cameras will eventually be removed.

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After nearly 50 years in downtown Bloomington, Greek restaurant and bar The Trojan Horse will be moving to Ellettsville this summer.

Co-owner Kristen Shelley said relocating to the former Wee Willies location was motivated by a desire to expand and become more accessible to families and people with mobility issues. She and her husband, co-owner Michael Shelley, also live in Ellettsville.

“I feel like we'll be welcomed, and that we'll be able to provide more access for people who might not travel around as much or live farther out,” Shelley said.

The restaurant hopes to complete the move in August.

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The US Department of Agriculture has concluded its investigation into the lab of IU biology professor Roger Innes.

Aside from an expired import permit, a missing curation permit and some unapproved house plants, the department found nothing during its search Monday violating federal guidelines.

The lab was missing a permit it needed to keep a plant pathogen for several years after importing it, but the lab is still permitted to work with that species. The USDA destroyed those petri dishes. Some organisms they were unable to identify were also destroyed.

“No fines, no penalties. The lab is opened again,” Innes said. “The biggest loss is they required us to destroy all of the house plants that we had decorating the windowsills in our lab. So, there's going to be many sad people in my lab tomorrow morning when they discover their house plants are gone.”

IU locked down several adjacent labs before erecting a barrier which allowed partial access for other scientists. That barrier came down Tuesday afternoon.

Losing lab access for two weeks set back research projects back by several months, according to Innes.

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Monroe Lake’s beaches will not open on Memorial Day again this year due to flooding. All other recreational activities such as boating and fishing are available.

Today the water level was sitting at about 9.68 feet above normal pool level. The beaches at Paynetown and Fairfax SRA are completely under water, and will remain closed at least through the end of May.

Last year, the beaches were closed for most of the year due to flooding.

People can still swim off from a boat when the water is high. Monroe Lake naturalist Jill Vance said those who do should be aware of more debris and recommends people wear Personal Flotation Devices.

Two Herons Marina, Lake Monroe Boat Rental, Lake Monroe Sailing Association and Fourwinds Lakeside Inn and Marina, which are all privately owned and operated, are open.

Sections of the Tree Trek Trail at Paynetown SRA and the Osprey Trail and Homestead Trail at Fairfax SRA are currently underwater, according to the post.

There are road closures at McGowan Road, including access to the observation platform at Stillwater Marsh; Friendship Road, from hunter check station to Gross Road; and Stipp Road on the east side of Cartop SRA. Peninsula Road at Paynetown SRA that leads to the marina is open and the Activity Center, scheduled to open for the season Friday remains accessible for now.

People can monitor updates on the Monroe Lake’s Facebook page.

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Indiana University is restoring access to several biology labs that were locked down due to a USDA inspection into the lab of professor Roger Innes. But offices, equipment and freezers used by other researchers are still off limits.

Innes’s case drew attention after the professor’s public defense of Chinese scientists who were prosecuted by the federal government. The USDA investigated his lab earlier this year after one of his post-doctoral researchers was charged with concealing a shipment of DNA plasmids. At the time, it told Innes his lab was compliant with federal regulations.

IU Vice President for Research Russell Mumper emailed several administrators and biology professors Thursday morning, saying the USDA approved the university’s request to erect temporary barriers around the Innes lab so researchers can access adjacent lab space.

“Please be assured we are working as quickly as is feasible to ensure critical research tasks may continue or resume,” Mumper wrote.

But biology department chair Armin Moczek said it doesn’t solve his colleagues’ problem.

“It's nice to have lab space back,” he said. “Lab space by itself is useless if you can get to the reagents and ingredients you need to make use of that lab, and right now a lot of those are still inaccessible to the non-Innes lab faculty and students and postdocs that were affected by this in the first place.”

Moczek said earlier this week that the weeklong closure has long term implications for  researchers, including the unexpected termination of grant-funded projects.

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Indiana Public Media and WFIU/WTIU announced layoffs of four full-time staff and 14 part-timers Thursday, the latest cuts in public media nationally after state and federal governments ended funding.

The full-time layoffs came in marketing, television production and engineering.

In an email to donors, executive director Mike Arnold said, "We remain committed to trusted local news, arts and culture programming, and serving our community. That mission has not changed."

The elimination of government support has forced steep cuts in public media nationally. WFIU/WTIU lost about $1.8 million.

Arnold said in the email that donors’ support amid funding cuts allowed Indiana Public Media "to reduce the scale of these (job) reductions."

Becoming a part of IU’s Media School also prevented layoffs by allowing some staff to work for both entities, Arnold said. The station previously reported to the provost.

WFIU/WTIU operates on IU’s campus and receives funding from sources including grants, donors and Indiana University. While state and federal funding is gone, IU funding has been unchanged, Arnold said.

WFIU/WTIU News has editorial independence from university and station management.

There were no cuts to WFIU/WTIU News on Thursday, although six positions vacated over the past year haven’t been filled. Arnold said in an interview Thursday those positions have been eliminated.

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A judge has paused Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s lawsuit against Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté while a related federal lawsuit over Indiana’s new immigration enforcement law proceeds.

The Monroe County case began in 2024, when Rokita sued Marté over the sheriff’s immigration policy. Rokita argued the policy unlawfully limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

But earlier this month, special judge Luke Rudisill granted a request from Marté’s attorneys to pause the county case while a separate federal constitutional challenge continues.

The federal lawsuit, filed by Marté, challenges part of a new state law requiring local law enforcement agencies to comply with immigration detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Marté argues that holding someone solely because of an ICE detainer request, without a judicial warrant, could violate the Fourth Amendment.

His attorneys argued the federal case could resolve what they called the “sole remaining issue of contention” in the county lawsuit.

Rokita’s office is now asking Rudisill to reconsider the pause and restart the Monroe County case.

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At the Tuesday night Monroe County Council meeting, public officials and locals debated an ordinance by county commissioners approving the purchase of a site for the new county jail. Elected officials have two more weeks to show progress toward better conditions for inmates or the ACLU of Indiana says it could sue.

To pass on its first reading, a county ordinance requires unanimous approval. The vote failed five to one, so it’ll come up again at the next council meeting for a simple majority vote.

Councilor Peter Iversen provided the sole yes vote strategically so officials have two more weeks to deliberate. He said he hasn’t decided which way he’ll go.

Seventeen years have passed since Monroe County reached an agreement with the ACLU that it would improve conditions. Now, the county is in a tough position.

The latest settlement with the ACLU of Indiana runs out by May 29, and the civil liberties group said a new lawsuit is on the table. On the other hand, a proposal only exists for one shovel-ready jail site, a property called North Park. It’s criticized for its high price tag and distance from Bloomington services. County council rejected it once before.

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