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This is What a Coup Looks Like
Those Tatterdemalion Thugs By Dennis Reardon, guest columnist We have a munificently funded private Executive army invading the capitals of states that didn’t vote for Grifter-in-Chief Donald Trump. I refrain from calling ICE Trump’s Gestapo only because the Nazi Gestapo was a highly-trained and well-disciplined set of brutes. The tatterdemalion thugs that invaded Minneapolis were…
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Bloomington’s Brad Meyer emerges as the Democrats’ best hope for the Ninth District
He quit his job to do this By Mike Leonard Dee Owens was having coffee at Hive restaurant with her friend, Regina Moore, when she noticed another friend having a conversation with a gentleman across the room. ‘Who’s he?’ she wondered. On the way out the door, Moore offered to introduce Owens to the gentleman.…
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The Bright Light of the Dark End of the Street
Pioneering radio show turns over the reins after more than three decades By Mike Leonard When program host Bill Weaver announced his retirement from the WFHB show, “Dark End of the Street” in late December, fans and friends of the program all seemed to say the same thing: “It’s the end of an era.” Dark…
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Jewish Studies’ 180 flip
IU’s sledgehammer approach to changing core values of the university is broader, deeper, and more impactful than many realize. Yet. By Mike Leonard Much of what is happening at IU is being carried out in the darkness behind the Sample Gates entryway of the Bloomington flagship campus. Photo by Mike Leonard “What the hell is…
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You Wanna Boogie?Boogie Woogie Woogie With Me
Singer/songwriter John Hartford made up that line, and you can drop it if you like at this year’s Bloomington Blues & Boogie Woogie Piano Festival. By Mike Leonard Hartford’s little ditty paid homage to the playful double-entendre tunes of jazz and blues and whatever your wink-wink interpretation such references suggested. They all meant ‘having a…
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The decline of a great university
THE ACADEMY IS AN OUTDATED CONCEPT TO THE IU TRUSTEES AND STATE GOVERNMENT By Mike Leonard SUVs blowing through stop signs. Cars going the wrong way on one-way streets. Students playing drinking games with ping pong balls in their front yards. It’s “Welcome Back” time at Indiana University. And if you’re new to town, listen…
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Mellencamp returns to the stage
Four years after his last live gig, longtime Bloomington resident opens a mammoth new tour at the IU Auditorium Mellencamp shows no signs of slowing down at age 71. Courtesy Photo. In the four years since John Mellencamp took on concert tours across the U.S. and beyond, his fans got more than a little nostalgic…
The B-Town Bee 