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Sixty years ago, America began closing mental hospitals. A growing chorus is blaming that for the crisis of mentally ill folks living on our streets.

The Mayor of Normal warns looming federal limits on water system phosphorus emissions could be a development killer if area residents have to pay for 160-million-dollars in improvements without federal help. There are a lot of pets turned in to shelters in McLean County right now. But the reason for the furry glut might not be post pandemic pet purging after all. And a soon to be abolished tent city on Bloomington's west side raises the profile of the homeless in the twin cities.

Suburban sprawl is very expensive to cities and towns. It's far more cost effective to have cities go up instead of out. Bloomington wants to offer incentives for infill and rebuilding instead of more of the same old edge-of-town subdivisions. Three Afghani men evacuated when that country fell to the Taliban are relocating to Bloomington...Hear about the Afghan Welcome Home Project of Central Illinois. And there's a new resource guide for those with autism in Bloomington Normal and those who want to learn about the condition.

The Bloomington City Council is close to signing off on a plan to reduce the likelihood of future floods like the June deluge that hurt thousands of homeowners. A 50-minute recording of a wind chime is the center of a new album from a Bloomington Normal musician. Big development projects are always complicated heavy lifts. And a five year effort in Uptown Normal with Bush Construction is now over, for a while. The developer exits saying the time is not right. Normal City Manager Pam Reece says she's optimistic a four or five story mixed use building will eventually happen.

Cars connect to phones all the time now and Normal City Manager Pam Reece says that has implications, having emergency vehicles talk to traffic signals, for instance. Hear how Normal plans to be a smart city. Plus Dewitt County has a new wind farm under construction. There's more about that and the wind power industry. And in past decades McLean County Board redistricting has been a quiet exercise controlled by the dominant Republican party. This year there are enough Democrats on the board to make it a very noisy process indeed.

A Bloomington Normal woman who fought her way out of the hole of addiction is extending helping hands to others like her. Hear about an art exhibit that evokes a sense of place in central Illinois showing at Heartland Community College. Businesses have had a lot of projects delayed because of supply chain issues and inflationary cost increases, cities too, The O'Neil park project is one casualty. City Manager Tim Gleason has more. And a recent ISU graduate is campaigning for better fire protection in rental housing.

It's been a tragic week for Saskatchewan's Cree Nation, following the stabbing spree that killed 10 and injured another 18 on Sunday.

At StoryCorps, Carmencristina Moreno and Rosemary Selzer share memories of their father, Luis M. Moreno, who composed "beautiful music." Today, though, hearing his songs on the radio is bittersweet.

Dolly, the first cloned mammal, had early arthritis and died young, raising concerns that clones age prematurely. But a study confirms the sheep's four sister clones are healthy and aging well.

StoryCorps brings us memories of one of the first sit-ins of the Civil Rights Era, a protest at a drug store in Oklahoma City that was organized by children.