Victim in apartment fire identified
The resident that died during the Woodland Springs apartment in Bloomington last Tuesday evening has been identified as 43 year-old Bobby Coker Jr. According to reports, the official cause of death has been listed as asphyxia due to smoke inhalation. The blaze, which has been deemed accidental by the State Fire Marshal, was caused by an unattended kitchen stove. Five apartments were damaged in the fire. The only other reported injury was that of a firefighter, who was treated at the scene and recovered immediately.
The PepsiCo Foundation and Ivy Tech Community College announce Uplift Scholarship
Ivy Tech Community College and The PepsiCo Foundation announced the launch of the Uplift Scholarship program to support Black and Hispanic students pursuing two-year degrees and professional certificate programs. In addition to financial assistance, the program will provide students with dedicated success coaches, access to emergency grants, and financial literacy courses. The partnership, which was announced at Ivy Tech’s Spirit of Diversity Awards dinner this evening, will support 52 Black, Latino, and Hispanic students studying Information Technology and Advanced Manufacturing, enabling them to pursue high-demand careers.
The Uplift Scholarship program is part of The PepsiCo Foundation’s $40 million commitment to address historical barriers that make it challenging for minority students to enroll, persist, and graduate from college – barriers that have widened during the pandemic. The Foundation’s Uplift Scholarship is currently offered at 20 community colleges across the country with the goal of providing 4,000 scholarships over five years. Ivy Tech received $400,000 in scholarship funds for the Uplift Scholarship program and has distributed over $100,000 so far to students at Ivy Tech’s Indianapolis, South Bend/Elkhart, and Marion campuses.
Pandemic upended state’s population trends in 2021: Indiana Business Research Center
Indiana added 20,341 residents in 2021 to reach a total population of nearly 6.81 million, according to the latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Analysis by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business indicates this is Indiana’s smallest annual increase since 2015 and is well below the state’s average annual gain of nearly 30,200 residents over the previous decade.
“The primary cause of this slower growth was a sharp increase in the number of deaths in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll,” said Matthew Kinghorn, senior demographer at the Indiana Business Research Center. “At the same time, fertility rates in Indiana continued to decline, resulting in only 77,600 births last year — the state’s lowest annual tally on record dating back to the late 1960s.”
Due to these developments, the so-called natural increase of Indiana’s population — or the number of births minus the number of deaths — was a scant 690 residents in 2021. To put this number in perspective, Indiana had an average natural increase of roughly 21,150 residents per year between 2010 and 2019. Meanwhile, half of all states had a natural decrease in 2021, meaning deaths outnumbered births. With the state’s natural increase essentially flat, Indiana’s population gains were fueled almost entirely by a strong net in-migration of more than 19,000 residents in 2021.
This Week in Hoosier History
1865 – Albion Fellows Bacon was born in Evansville. Sometimes called “the mother of Indiana housing laws,” she gained a national reputation as a social reformer and author, best known for her efforts to improve living standards. In 1911, she helped organize the Indiana Housing Association. In 1917, she was behind a law passed by the Indiana legislature which set higher housing standards and authorized condemnation of unsanitary dwellings.
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