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Jimmy John's Friday
One IU student's love for the famous sandwich chain
By Samantha Camire
scamire@iu.edu | @CamireSamantha
It’s Friday and for IU sophomore John Broadwell, that can only mean one thing: Jimmy John’s. Jan. 17 marked week 77 in John’s quest to have a weekly Jimmy John’s sandwich. He gets the same thing every time. “A No. 5, no onions.” John’s love for Jimmy John’s is so deep-rooted it has become part of his weekly routine, a natural commitment he documents with a weekly selfie on his Instagram story. Not only does he
make weekly trips to the store for his go-to order, he often arrives dressed in Jimmy John’s-branded clothing. And in a digital art class freshman year, he made every one of his projects themed to his favorite sandwich shop. “I always encourage them to consider having a consistent theme to work with; a lot of people might explore grief or something of that nature, or sustainability,” professor Dominick Rivers, who taught the course, said. “And he COURTESY PHOTO came in and was like, ‘Jimmy John’s Photoshop piece, made for class, of explorers discovering John’s it is.’” the No. 5 with no onions is pictured. “It is so good, the amount of detail that was put in to make it look like a tintype, like antiquated
SEE SANDWICH, PAGE 6 photography,” Dominick Rivers, his professor for the course, said.
At-large county councilor elected Liz Feitl will fill the empty seat in the wake of Cheryl Munson's death
By Jack Forrest
jhforres@iu.edu | @byjackforrest
The Monroe County Council has its newest atlarge councilor. Monroe County Democratic Central Committee Precinct representatives chose Liz Feitl to fill an empty seat at a vacancy caucus Jan. 19 at the courthouse. It’s been empty since longtime public servant Cheryl Munson’s death in December. “I’m excited to be able to have the opportunity to further my knowledge to be used in a useful way for the county,” Feitl told the Indiana Daily Student after the caucus. She joins Trent Deckard and David Henry, who, along with Munson, were elected in November as the council’s at-large members. Feitl said she plans to continue to review what Munson stood for, since voters elected her and her platform in November. “The voters in the whole county voted for her then, and it’s real important for me to carry that out because it should be done on the voter intent,” Feitl said. Feitl was the AFL-CIO community liaison for the United Way of Monroe County from 2002-21 and was on the Monroe County Women’s Commission from 2013-21. She’s since retired, which she said gives her the time to do the work of councilor. She previously told the IDS her priorities include
13 burglaries in 11 days: Here's what to know By Brenna Polovina bpolovin@iu.edu
The IU Police Department received report of 13 burglaries from Forest Quad, Willkie South, Ashton Johnston Hall, as well as Greek houses Beta Sigma Psi and Phi Delta Theta between Jan. 4 and Jan. 15, according to an IU crime notice. Electronics, musical instruments, clothing and jewelry were among the stolen items. Of the 13 reported burglaries, seven were reported to have occurred at Beta Sigma Psi. IUPD crime and fire log labeled one report on Jan. 5, four reports on Jan. 12, four reports on Jan. 13 and four reports on Jan. 15. The log said twelve cases remain open for investigation and one case led to no arrest. IUPD’s crime notice said there are no known suspects and no known connection between the reported burglaries.
JACK FORREST | IDS
Liz Feitl (left) takes the oath of office after being chosen to be the next at-large Monroe County Councilor on Jan. 19, 2025, at the Monroe County Courthouse in Bloomington. The voting required three rounds to determine a winner.
having more union labor on boards and commissions, scrutinizing county tax abatements and seeing more affordable housing. On Jan. 19, she also mentioned investigating the decline of the working age population in Monroe County and further supporting the tourism industry as topics she’s interested in. She said since the council decided on a location for the county’s new justice complex, it’s time to continue the project. The nearly four-hour caucus required three rounds of voting to determine a winner. Under the caucus’s rules, a candidate needed a majority vote to be declared winner. Although Feitl received the most votes each round, she didn’t re-
ceive the required majority until the third. Of the 68 representatives eligible to vote, 61 voted in the first round, 60 voted in the second round and 59 voted in the third round. Eight people ran for the seat. A ninth candidate, Sarah Larson, withdrew Jan. 7 due to new obligations at her job. The vacancy caucus was originally scheduled for Jan. 5 but was delayed due to unsafe weather conditions. Each candidate had four minutes to provide opening statements to the precinct representatives. They then fielded questions for an hour on subjects like the county justice center expansion project, collaboration with the county board of commissioners and how they supported the Demo-
cratic Party this past general election. Each candidate had two minutes for a closing statement, as well. In the first round, four candidates did not receive the required votes to make it to the second: Richard Carter, Rob Council, Joe Davis and Andrew Guenther. After the second round of voting, Scott Shackelford did not receive enough votes to move on. The remaining three candidates, Feitl, Matt Caldie and Ilana Stonebraker, then answered another round of questions. In the final round of voting, Feitl received 30 votes, Stonebraker received 22 and Caldie received seven. Feitl’s first meeting with the county council will be at 5 p.m. Jan. 28.
FILE PHOTO | IDS
The Shalom Center is pictured on March 3, 2023, in Bloomington. Forrest Gilmore, the executive director of Bloomington-based antipoverty organization Beacon, said those unable to access shelters during periods of extreme weather face risk of injury.
Hundreds without housing in cold temperatures By Ella Curlin elcurlin@iu.edu
A country-wide cold front brought Bloomington into single-digit temperatures this week, and Michale Williams, 49, said he’s worried about frostbite. “It’s one of the biggest things you have to worry about, being out here, is getting frostbitten,” Williams said. “That’s dangerous. That’s very, very dangerous.” Williams said he moved to from Indianapolis to Bloomington three decades ago, after family circumstances left him homeless at 16. Of the 30 years he has lived in Bloomington, he has been without permanent housing for 25.
“It’s one of the biggest things you have to worry about, being out here, is getting frostbitten. That's dangerous. That's very, very dangerous.” Michale Williams, unhoused Bloomington resident
Last weekend Williams was one of 30 overnight guests at the Bloomington Severe Emergency Winter Shelter, a year-old volunteer program that works with local churches to host overnight shelters on days with dangerous winter conditions. That was on Jan. 18 night, when weather conditions were subfreezing. Those temperatures were expected to lower as the week went on. Bloomington hit wind chill values below -10 degrees on the early morning of Jan. 22. Cold-related injuries are
on the rise in the U.S., and people experiencing homelessness are especially vulnerable. For people without access to heat or shelter, severe winter conditions can be devastating. As this week’s cold front froze Bloomington and Monroe County, Williams is one of an increasing number of people in Bloomington and Monroe County experiencing homelessness in extreme temperatures. A 2024 count by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority found 456 people experiencing homelessness in an area called Region 10, which is made up of Monroe, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Morgan and Owen counties. Of those 456, 350 were in Monroe County, and 142 were living entirely without shelter. These numbers have been on the rise. Williams attributed that to Bloomington’s lack of affordable non-student housing, or to displacements after people leave jails or prisons. “Most of the time when a person comes in and comes out, they lost their house, or they lost their apartment, and that puts them out here on the street,” Williams said. Williams said these newly displaced are often the most vulnerable because they lack experience surviving weather extremes or knowledge of local resources and shelters. “If you don’t know how to keep yourself out of the elements, or how to protect yourself, or how to just survive, you could die out here,” Williams said. “I lost a lot of people already out here.” SEE HOUSING, PAGE 4
City supports immigrants on Inauguration Day Advocates reflected on how to best support immigrants leading up to Trump’s inauguration
By Marissa Meador marnmead@iu.edu
Three years ago, St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Bloomington welcomed a Syrian refugee family through Exodus Refugee Immigration, Susan Kinzer told the crowd of 60 at the “Supporting Immigrants on Inauguration Day” event Jan. 20. Since then, the father has received his commercial truck-driving license, the daughter is studying at IU and the son is pursuing a career as a mechanic, she said.
“Policies do not define our humanity. Our actions do.” Mayor Kerry Thomson
The family’s siblings have been waiting in a refugee camp in Lebanon for 10 years, so the church applied to bring the sibling and their family through a federal program called Welcome Corps. But with President Donald Trump’s impend-
ing executive orders, it may already be too late. “That application is pending, and we expect in the next 24 hours it will be shut down,” Kinzer said. One by one, faith leaders, immigration lawyers and advocates at the event shared resources and tentative expressions of hope amid the uncertainty of Trump’s inauguration, which is expected to be followed by executive orders targeting immigration, including an attempt to end birthright citizenship. During the event’s keynote, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson stopped short of explicitly refusing to comply with Trump’s immigration orders but expressed support for the refugee and immigrant population, highlighting the difference between just and unjust laws in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” “Policies do not define our humanity,” Thomson said. “Our actions do.” While Bloomington does not have a particularly high foreign-born population,
MARISSA MEADOR | IDS
Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson speaks to a crowd of around 60 people hours before Donald Trump's inauguration Jan. 20, 2025, at the downtown branch of the Monroe County Public Library. Trump plans to end birthright citizenship in the U.S.
Exodus Refugee Immigration has served roughly 150 refugees in Bloomington per year since the city was federally approved in 2021 as Exodus’s second refugee resettlement site in Indiana.
These refugees come primarily from Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan. Several Democratic local government leaders joined Thomson at the event, in-
cluding Bloomington City Councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith and newly elected Monroe County Councilor Liz Feitl. SEE IMMIGRANTS, PAGE 4