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NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to Lina al-Hathloul about her sister, Loujain, who has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for her women's rights activism.

Human service agencies like Marcfirst are having to find new ways to help clients find jobs as employers change what workers they need after the pandemic. Marcfirst CEO Brian Wipperman says he thinks it will be neutral once all is said and done. Two McLean County Board members detail how they came up with 24 volunteers to help the county create new district maps. Sales tax revenue in Normal has returned to prepandemic levels as City Manager Pam Reece explains. Plus, Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason discusses ramped up road work plans for the summer.

Evangelical church leaders say they can only go so far in promoting vaccines to their members. White evangelicals rank first among groups rejecting the vaccine. Plus, Normal City Manager Pam Reece reflects on how the town council addressed unfounded ethics allegations against her levied by one council member. The Human services sector in Bloomington Normal may be understaffed, underpaid, and under-appreciated, but its still a huge part of the twin cities economy. State Senator Dave Koehler talks about being the first Democrat to represent Bloomington Normal in the General Assembly in four decades.

The Bloomington City Council is acting to build new sewer lines in a part of the city lacking full service. Mayor Tari Renner said the city sewer system…

The city of Bloomington has some unpleasant choices ahead. The city council has five options to close a million dollar deficit but is a long way from clarity. Many of the lawmakers in Springfield weren't even born the last time there was a House Speaker NOT named Mike Madigan. Hear an assessment of the new House and Senate leadership performance in the spring session. State Senator Jason Barickman blames the Governor for an evictions moratorium that may cause a spike in evictions when it goes away in late summer. Barickman says the courts should have been trusted to deal with the issue during the pandemic. And Bloomington Normal's largest COVID testing site is closing. Find out who will pick up the load.

Some residents of Bloomington say they feel betrayed by the city in their flooded hour of need. A Bloomington Council member wants the city to offer money to help. And a lawyer says some of his clients may sue over sewage. Being an ER nurse during a pandemic is really really stressful, but they say they take a breath and get their game face on. ER nurses say they'd love to answer questions for those who are vaccine hesitant, but rarely get the chance. And craft beer and jazz is a nice combination. It's happening in Uptown Normal this weekend.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Omar Shaban, founder of a Gaza-based think tank, and Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu, about how this cycle of Palestinian-Israeli violence plays out in their neighborhoods.

A devastating number of the city's young people have lost their lives to gun violence over the past few years. Diane Latiker has built a program in order to make these children's lives safer.

In Pakistan, women took to the streets despite attacks from fundamentalists. And, fed up with gender-based violence and murders, Mexican women staged a nationwide strike on International Women's Day.

Commentator Sister Maureen Fiedler on the movie, "Dead Man Walking." She says Susan Sarandon's portrayal of a nun was superlative. She was pleased to see a nun on the screen who wasn't garbed in the traditional habit with downcast eyes. Rather, the character in the movie was a living, breathing, very human woman.