A record 21.3 million people signed up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for 2024, with the largest enrollment increases tallied in Indiana and other red states.

Why it matters: The 30.7% annual increase in ACA sign-ups comes as former President Trump's renewed calls for repeal have again raised doubts about the law's future, writes Axios' Jason Millman.

• Enrollment figures released by federal health officials last week indicate that Republican-leaning states would be heavily affected by the law's repeal.

By the numbers: States with the largest year-over-year increase in sign-ups include West Virginia (80.2%), Louisiana (75.9%), Ohio (62.2%), Indiana (59.6%) and Tennessee (59.5%), according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the marketplaces.

• Seven other states saw increases of 45% or more: Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Texas.
• Almost a quarter of enrollees were new to the marketplaces this year.

Context: Some of the enrollment surge can likely be attributed to a portion of the millions who've recently lost Medicaid coverage moving to the marketplaces.

• Democrats also made marketplace subsidies larger and available to more people, though the enhanced assistance is set to expire after 2025 without an extension from Congress.

Zoom in: Nearly 300,000 Hoosiers signed up for plans through Healthcare.gov.

• Medicaid disenrollments in Indiana began in June, with enrollment declining 219,337 from May to December 2023.
• Roughly 30,000 were determined to be ineligible.
• About 190,000 were terminated for procedural reasons.

Indiana will host a historic cicada celebration two centuries in the making this spring.

Driving the news: Two separate cicada broods — Broods XIX and XIII — will emerge during the same year for the first time in 221 years and bring their signature singing to 16 states.

• The phenomenon playfully referred to as "cicadapocalypse" will see trillions of the big bugs with the blood-red eyes burrow from the Earth starting in May.
• Experts say this won't happen again until 2245.

Why it matters: Indiana is one of just two states that will see the broods overlap geographically.

• Illinois is also expected to get in on the double brood action.

Zoom in: According to Purdue Extension entomologist Cliff Sadof, the Indiana broods will be in more rural areas.

• Brood XIII will be in Lake, LaPorte and Porter counties. Meanwhile, Brood XIX will emerge in eight western counties from Posey to Warrick in the south, and from Newton to Jasper up north.
• The next brood specifically targeting Marion County is Brood XIV. Expect to see and hear them next spring.

Flashback: The last time a 13-year brood and a 17-year brood emerged in the same year was in 2015.

• Broods XIX and XIII in particular haven't shared turf since 1803.

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🚍 A bill that IndyGo says would effectively kill the Blue Line passed the Senate yesterday. The proposed moratorium on dedicated lanes goes to the House, where House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) has said he supports it.

🚨 IMPD has arrested 24-year department veteran Paul Humphrey on felony sexual misconduct and child seduction charges. He is accused of having sex with a high school student he has known since the student was in elementary school. (WTHR)

🥗 A new (still unnamed) restaurant is coming to the Community Justice Campus in the Twin Aire neighborhood, making it the first private business to set up shop there since the $600 million project opened in 2022. (WRTV)

💸 Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and several lawmakers are calling on FSSA to drop plans to cut payments to parents of medically complex children who serve as caregivers. The cut was proposed to help close a $1 billion shortfall in the state's Medicaid budget. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

An Indianapolis company is reinventing bartending.

What's happening: A new breed of beer dispenser fills cups from the bottom, injecting the liquid to the right level automatically and leaving bartenders free for other tasks, writes Axios' Jennifer Kingson.

Driving the news: Josh Springer, CEO of Bottoms Up Draft Beer Systems, invented the device in 2008 and now serves nearly 400 restaurants nationally, including chains like Taco Bell Cantina, Beef O'Brady's and Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux.

🍻 How it works: The Bottoms Up glass (or reusable plastic cup) has a hole in the bottom with a metal ring that's sealed with a magnet — a four-inch round disc that looks like a poker chip.

• When the cup is clicked into place atop a Bottoms Up "kegerator" — a refrigerated keg — the magnet is lifted and beer starts to flow upwards.
• When the bartender picks the cup up the magnet falls back into place, sealing the liquid inside. (See a video here.)

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An exploration team thinks they may have found the wreckage of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart's aircraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean — a plane that Purdue University helped purchase.

Driving the news: Earhart worked at Purdue from 1935 until she disappeared in 1937 while trying to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.

• Ahead of the trip, she told Purdue president Edward Elliott about her plans and he offered to help.
• The Purdue Research Foundation established a fund to support Earhart's trip and her research.
• In 1936, Earhart acquired the Lockheed Electra 10-E airplane she'd take off in the following year, using just over $40,000 provided by the fund.

What they're saying: Deep Sea Vision founder Tony Romeo said the sonar images captured by his team closely resemble that plane.