Catrina Petersen

An Illinois State University professor who also is president of the McLean County Board of Health said if the community could do it over, she'd change the COVID-19 messaging to lessen the tension between maskers and anti-maskers.

Expected turnout for next month’s Bloomington Kiwanis Mother’s Day Flower Sale is much higher because 2020's sale was canceled, but some supply is limited.

UPDATED 4:20 p.m. | Fruit farmers in central Illinois are worried a freeze Tuesday night could destroy their crops.

Consolidated local elections typically produce a lower voter turnout than even-year elections like presidential cycles. Normally, only about 20% of registered voters cast ballots.

The Children's Discovery Museum in Uptown Normal is tentatively planning to reopen May 1, but there are a lot of moving parts for its staff to consider.

A student organization is tackling two of the world’s biggest threats: hunger and climate change.

An Illinois State University sorority says it is “stepping” up to collect shoes for people in developing nations.

Delta Zeta Lambda Rho said it is just 300 shoe pairs shy of its 1,500-pair goal. 

Ally Lawler heads philanthropy for Delta Zeta Lambda Rho. 

A thumb-sized frog lays very tiny eggs, but that didn’t stop an Illinois State University professor at taking a closer look.

Professor Matthew Dugas studies poison dart frogs he keeps in a fish tank in a walk-in cooler in his laboratory. Dugas specifically studies parental care. He spent a lot of time focusing on the begging behavior tadpoles exhibit, similar to that of birds. 

Two recent mass shootings have spurred President Joe Biden and his administration to push for Senate passage of two House-approved gun control measures.

Biden said this week that assault weapons and high-capacity magazines should once again be banned and that loopholes in background checks should be closed.

When there is a large concentration of birds, disease tends to spread. This winter was an exceptional winter for finches coming down to central Illinois from Canada, and that caused more birds to be at feeders than normal.

American Birding Association magazine editor Michael Retter said the disease most prevalent in McLean County is salmonella.

McLean County dentists are taking a hands-on approach to getting their patients back in the chair, with many learning how to deliver the COVID vaccine themselves.

Quarantine made for some extra time, and some used it to start a new hobby or develop an existing one. Some Normal Township Activity and Recreation Center (ARC) members spent their time crafting a Quarantine Quilt.

Quilting group leader Mary Wuhrmann said the 4-by-5 foot quilt’s center square represents the COVID-19 virus, but the surrounding squares represent our homes.

A 1947 Illinois State University alum who dedicated his life to military service, and his wife, a stenographer and translator in the French Women’s Army Corp, have given $1 million to help fund scholarships for ISU physics students.

The Ecology Action Center is challenging itself and the community to go big or go home, with plans to plant at least 100,000 new trees in McLean County.

Center director Michael Brown said if the initiative plants all 100,000 trees over the next decade, then nearly 14,000 metric tons of carbon could be sequestered.

“It is one of the most significant and cost-effective strategies out there for carbon sequestration and for emissions we cannot address through other means,” said Brown.

The EAC is raising the money to do it through private donations. 

Democrats have vowed to continue pushing to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Illinois already has beat them to the punch, but the federal proposal includes something Illinois’ minimum wage law doesn’t have.

An Illinois Wesleyan alum’s work is up for a Golden Globe for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy). The movie “The Prom” is based off Bill Damaschke’s Broadway musical comedy of the same name.

Many college students who called the Sugar Creek Apartments home are adjusting to their new reality after Saturday’s fire, even as others are reaching out to help their displaced neighbors.

UPDATED 8:35 p.m. | Crews worked the scene of a large fire that destroyed or heavily damaged 12 apartment units Saturday afternoon in Normal.

Crews braved zero-degree weather on Sunday to extinguish a fire that broke out in the debris of a major freight train derailment near Uptown Normal.