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WGLT's The Leadoff is everything you need to know to start your day for Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021.

Nationally ranked disc golfers come to central Illinois for a big tourney. For the record, fon't call it frisbee golf or even worse FROLF. The Illinois Arts Station is close to opening its new home in Normal. At certain long term care facilities in Bloomington Normal less than a quarter of the staff have taken the Coronavirus vaccine. Dive into why that is. Plus, a big long term care facility operator backtracks on its requirement that staff get vaccinated. Heritage Health would love it if the government took the question of mandates out of company hands.

WGLT's The Leadoff is everything you need to know to start your day for Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021.

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.

Governor JB Pritzker says he's disappointed so many school districts had planned to make masks optional for the fall. He's taking that choice out of their hands. There's now a statewide mask mandate - daycare through high school. It's tough to put out a car fire in an electric vehicle because you have to keep the battery cells that aren't on fire cool enough so they don't go up. Normal firefighters say it takes ten times the usual amount of water to put out an EV car fire. They're studying up for a lot more EVs on the road. And Team Mercury is on the road. Illinois State University's solar car racing team has a very quiet engine.

The Bloomington Normal NAACP starts a youth council. Hear what dreams those young people have for change. And one of the things caused by the pandemic that will remain is a good thing; summer food programs. A lot of Bloomington Normal people whose homes were flooded last month can't dig out by themselves. The Salvation Army has pleas for help from 200 people in 80 families. And Bloomington has had three police chiefs and two interim chiefs in the last year and a half. Hear an interview with the latest to leave and why.

WGLT's The Leadoff is everything you need to know to start your day for Friday, July 23, 2021.

WGLT's The Leadoff is everything you need to know to start your day for Monday, July 26, 2021.

Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason says everything has a cost and the city has only so much borrowing power. Gleason says if the council chooses more underground infrastructure work after the flood it might delay other big projects. The start of school is coming up fast and districts are getting desperate for bus drivers. They say they'll beg, borrow, or steal drivers wherever they can. Some schools say this is the worst bus driver shortage they have ever seen. Plus circus route books shed light on discrimination in popular culture. Hear about a new digital exhibit at ISU's Milner Library. And new data comparing a decade of inmates at the McLean County adult and juvenile jails could help shape social service programs.

The McLean County Emergency Management Agency usually spends a lot of time preparing for disasters. But most of the last year and a half have been consumed by, well, emergencies. And they're shorthanded. A great tune and a little reinvention has kept this opera popular for nigh on 300 years. MIOpera begins its season in Bloomington Normal with the Barber of Seville. And, the band Good Morning Bedlam has close harmonies on stage and in the rest of their lives.