Edith Brady-Lunny / WGLT
Nursing home operators are grateful long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines have started to make it to their facilities.
For nearly a year, residents and families have struggled with isolation just to try to stay safe. That isolation comes with its own health consequences.
Terry Nybakke speaks to his father Bernie during weekly visits via Zoom.
Credit Eric Stock / WGLT
Bernie Nybakke is 88. He has been living at the Sugar Creek Alzheimer s Care Center in Normal since shortly after his wife died last May. His family, including son Terry Nybakke, talk to him every week via Zoom.
Terry Nybakke said his father has dementia. He said his father handles the technology well, but he needs frequent reminders about why his family can t come see him.
The heads of colleges and universities in Illinois are asking Gov. JB Pritzker to move higher education faculty and staff up to 1B in the vaccination queue
Larry Carius / Facebook
The end of COVID-19 mitigation rules that banned indoor restaurant service in Bloomington-Normal has created a new problem for Twin City eateries.
On-again off again restaurant service has caused many professional restaurant workers to give up on the community, according to Larry Carius, who writes about the Bloomington-Normal Restaurant Scene on Facebook. There s an employee shortage right now as they are opening indoor dining. They are scrambling to find employees, said Carius.
Carius said the shortage is largely in the professional, full-time restaurant worker category. Managers, assistant managers, chefs, cooks a lot of them have moved outside of Bloomington-Normal. While our dining rooms were closed here, you could go to other states, said Carius.
Normal Police Deptartment
Authorities in Bloomington-Normal say the number of gun seizures rose significantly in 2020 with police seizing a total of 94 firearms. That s a third more than the 61 seized in in the two communities in 2019.
Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner said it s not a new trend. I think there are more firearms out there. From time to time, we have what they call straw purchases where someone will make a purchase who has a FOID card and they will illegally transfer it to someone who can t legally own a gun. But we also have a fair amount of thefts that happen, said Bleichner.
Project Oz
Two Twin City nonprofit agencies will expand services in areas of high need after being awarded state grants funded by marijuana tax money.
Project Oz and Prairie State Legal Services will both get about $200,000 to focus on areas of Bloomington affected by chronic and historical disinvestment, though amounts of the grants might not be final.
Prairie State Director Adrian Barr said his organization will use the money to do outreach to African Americans who traditionally distrust the criminal legal system. They generalize those experience to encompass all issues regarding the law. And as a result, they see no difference between civil and criminal law. So, they are less likely to seek help from formal institutions like Prairie State Legal Services, said Barr.