Civil Rights

The Normal Town Council will consider a new public comment policy to replace one the Illinois Attorney General has called illegal.

The Town currently prevents members of the public from addressing the council more than once every 45 days.

The Public Access Counselor for the Attorney General's Office said that violates the Open Meetings Act.

You might have noticed your female colleagues wearing red clothing today. Or perhaps they didn't show up at the office at all.

It's all part of the International Women's Day celebration, held each year on March 8. The day has special significance this year as women across the world try to maintain the momentum unleashed during the women's marches on Washington and other cities across the globe last January.

Illinois State University is fielding a lot of questions from international students concerned about the Trump Administration executive orders on immigration and visa enforcement.

About ten ISU students come from the seven countries specifically banned in the Executive order. Others from those nations have also been accepted for admission to ISU in the fall.

The Not In Our Town movement in Bloomington Normal is objecting to the Muslim ban and borders the Trump administration has closed for people from seven nations.

Mike Matejka of Not in Our Town said there will be a solidarity rally Wednesday.

The last eight years have been difficult for people who oppose abortion. The Obama administration was not receptive to that message.

But, Bloomington Central Catholic High School students headed to Washington for the annual national March For Life feel excited this year because of the change in administration.

Television personality Dr. Marc Lamont Hill spent time answering questions from a group of Illinois State University students before speaking at the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Dinner Friday night.

Hill is a distinguished professor of African American studies at Morehouse College and host of BET News and VH1 Live.

People in the Twin Cities may notice more signs popping up, but they aren't promoting political candidates.

The welcome signs are printed in three languages with the same message: No matter where you are from, we're glad you're our neighbor. 

A lot of couples become engaged around the holidays.

State Farm Insurance saw an opportunity to boost its business by reminding people to use #ProtectTheBling...as in don't forget to insure the engagement ring.

They used a stock photo of an interracial couple during a proposal displaying a ring.

Cue the intolerance. Lots of it. 

Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner agreed to a few changes requested during a standing-room-only, Black Lives Matter forum aimed at holding police accountable for strategies it says have unfairly targeted blacks and left some residents fearful to even drive the city streets. 

Black Lives Matter activists say the idea they weren't consulted about a potential west side police substation is not the only problem with the plan.

Group member Ky Ajayi, who lives on the east side of town near the airport, said following the Bloomington City Council meeting that the model of community policing articulated to the council by police and Mid Central Community Action is 'nice,' but not enough.

Elections are always polarizing. Elections are always bruising.

But, a Normal Community High School Teacher said this is the most extreme he has seen and one that has had a pronounced effect on students.

Chanting "black lives matter" for more than an hour, hundreds of protestors gathered in the ISU Quad in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory.

Student Gene Hoard said they were not happy with President Larry Dietz's appeal for calm in the face of injustice.

Tom Hayden, the famed 1960s anti-war activist who moved beyond his notoriety as a Chicago 7 defendant to become a California legislator, author and lecturer, has died. He was 76.

Hayden made headlines in the 1960s with his radical activism, his marriage to actress Jane Fonda and his trips to North Vietnam during the Vietnam war.

LGBTQ advocates indicate there is a big need for a clinic to serve transgender people in central Illinois.

Central Illinois Pride Health Center Director Len Meyer said they are trying to qualify for non-profit status, because most go to Chicago to get hormone replacement therapy.

People in the Twin Cities gathered for a candlelight vigil to show support for the victims of a shooting at an LGBTQ night club in Orlando that claimed 49 lives. 

Twenty years after the first Not In Our Town National Gathering took place in Bloomington to fight hate and intolerance, members say there is is an even greater need today for the organization's grass roots, community-building efforts.

NIOT member Mike Matejka said the recent presidential race and the rash of police killings of African Americans have created tensions within many communities.