Oct. 27, 2025: Student newspaper legal fight, election board clash, new jail location, bus ridership

Weather Talk

Based on the National Weather Service forecast in text and charts here’s some advice.

Monday: A light jacket or sweater is in order when you leave the house, because the day will start with a low of 45F°. The high will be around 63F°. Skies will be cloudy, but you won’t need an umbrella through most of the day. Still, a chance of scattered showers comes around 7 p.m.

Tuesday: Stick with a light wrap to start the day, and maybe an umbrella, because there’s a chance for scattered showers around 8 a.m. and a 50% chance for rain comes again mid-afternoon around 3 p.m. and extends into the night with chance of rain overnight increasing to 70%. The high on Tuesday will be just around 59F°.

Sign up for weather alerts: Monroe County emergency alert system.

Roundup of recent articles

• Indiana Daily Student adviser’s firing sparks legal fight, faculty rebuke, new IU task force.  Former Indiana University (IU) Media School director of student media Jim Rodenbush says he plans to sue the university for wrongful termination, after being fired Oct. 14 for refusing what he describes as an order to censor the Indiana Daily Student (IDS).
• Monroe County property transfers through Oct. 22, 2025.  This report includes new property transfers in Monroe County that haven’t previously been reported by The B Square, with dates ranging from Oct. 9 to Oct. 22, 2025. The data in this report comes from Beacon, the county’s online geographic information system for property and parcel data.
• Sunday Funnies: Hawk v. Fish.  Hawk: For Halloween, I will wear a dress Like Charlie Brown's friend, hold a football, wear a fake nose and glasses, and put on a necklace with several carats worth of precious stones. What does Fish say in reply?
• After fiery Monroe County election board meeting, vote centers still nonstarter ‘in the short term’.  After a contentious election board meeting on Thursday, and a meeting between the two county chairs of the major political parties on Friday, Monroe County does not look like it’s any closer to adopting vote centers as a way for registered voters to cast their ballots.
• Early promise fades as Edgewood falls to Scottsburg in football sectional first round.  On Friday, the Edgewood High School football team completed the program’s best season since 2019, with a 6-4 record. However, the final game left a sour taste for many Mustangs, as Edgewood fell 31-7 to Scottsburg in the first round of the Indiana High School Athletic Association Sectionals.
• Monroe County council to weigh jail land purchase, putting Thomson PUD on offer for sale.  Next Tuesday’s draft meeting agenda of the Monroe County council was already packed with significant items. Now it looks like Tuesday’s agenda could include another item with a historical connection to jail planning—authorization to offer the 87-acre county-owned Thomson PUD property for sale.
• Bloomington bus ridership down 6% so far in 2025, as 2 teams bidding for ops center merge.  Fixed route ridership on Bloomington’s public buses continues to lag about 6% behind last year’s numbers. Along with the ridership numbers, the board received an update on the process for selecting the builder and designer of the new operations center, to replace the one on Grimes Lane.
• Edgewood draws tough road matchup at Scottsburg to open football sectional play.  Edgewood (6-3, 3-2 Western Indiana) has a tough road in the Sectional portion of the playoffs. Playing in the seven-team, Class 3A Sectional 31, the Mustangs will travel 75 miles to play at Scottsburg. That contest will be played this Friday on Oct. 24 at 7 p.m.
• Bloomington city council sets 2026 pay scales for general employees, police and fire, clerk’s office.  At its regular Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council approved three salary ordinances establishing the pay for city employees in 2026. The council’s action covered all the jobs in city government except for the eleven elected positions of city council, clerk, and mayor.

On the calendar

Town hall with Matt Pierce. State representative Matt Pierce is hosting a town hall in city council chambers on Monday (Oct. 27) starting at 6:30 p.m. The topic highlighted in the meeting advertisement is the potential off-year redrawing congressional districts in the state of Indiana and the upcoming legislative session that starts in two months. Such a town hall now is timely for both of those reasons. But I don’t recall Pierce holding a stand-alone town hall like this in the past. He has also not been challenged in a Democratic Party primary in recent memory. So one more reason for the town hall could the fact that in 2026 Pierce will be facing a primary challenge from Lilliana Young. If competition in a primary results in better outreach by incumbents, that’s a win for democracy, I guess.

Land for jail now, land for jail before, $6 million in GO bonds, hiring nurses, hiring freeze. On the 5 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 28) agenda for the county council are several weighty items, any one of which would make it a meeting worth watching.

The council will be asked to make an appropriation to allow the deal to close on the purchase of the North Park site for use as the location of a new jail. The council will also be asked to authorize the sale of the Thomson PUD, which was previously considered as a potential new jail site. For B Square background, see: Monroe County council to weigh jail land purchase, putting Thomson PUD on offer for sale.

Also on the council’s agenda are two topics postponed from the night two weeks ago when the council approved the budget. One topic is related to the health department’s plan for dealing with the termination of a contract by IU Health to provide public health services. The other topic is the authorization to issue $6 million worth of general obligation bonds.

On top of all that, the council will be discussing possible revisions to the hiring freeze, which it enacted as a way to manage the county budget. Two departments (prosecutor’s office and highway department) already have requests on Tuesday’s agenda to fill vacancies as exceptions to the hiring freeze.

Halloween hours. Slow down. In the city of Bloomington, official trick-or-treat hours are 5:30–8:30 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 31). Slow down.

Little 500 fall racing series: Nov. 1, Nov. 2. Mark your calendar for Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 for cyclocross and street sprints.

Meet Trolley!

This very, very good boy a mix of Labrador retriever and Catahoula leopard dog. Here’s what the shelter staff have written about Trolley:

Trolley is a perfect and friendly gentleman who loves to play, snuggle and make new friends!

Photo Finish: 6th Street & Walnut Street

The Photo Finish items are drawn from the B There section of the B Square website.

Thanks for reading. I hope your week is off to a great start!

Dave Askins
734-645-2633
dave@bsquarebulletin.com