WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Good afternoon. This is the WFHB Local News Brief for Wednesday, July 8th, 2020.
Today’s Covid-19 Briefing
Nine new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Monroe County yesterday. Statewide, the number was 455. That’s according to the Indiana State Department of Health, which also attributed two new deaths in the state due to COVID-19.
The new numbers bring Indiana’s total number of COVID-19 deaths to two-thousand-five-hundred-and-thirty-nine. If you want to get a free COVID-19 test near Bloomington, there are two Optum testing sites available, one at the National Guard building on South Walnut. The other site is almost an hour away in Switz City. The Switz City site welcomes Bloomingtonians and has a much shorter wait-time. Make sure to register beforehand and don’t forget your patient ID.
FBI Opens Hate Crime Investigation into Assault On Vauhxx Booker
The FBI opened a hate crime investigation into the July 4th racist assault on Vauhxx Booker.
That’s according to Booker’s attorney, Katherine Liell, who made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon in front of the Monroe County Courthouse.
Liell said the incident was, “clearly racially motivated.”
In a Facebook post on Monday, Liell wrote that the case is also under active review by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office, which spoke with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as a part of its review. She wrote, “The prosecutor called in [the] DNR who will be forced to answer some tough questions.” Liell was apparently referring to officer conduct at the scene of the assault which has become the subject of public scrutiny after audio, video, and eye-witness accounts indicate that the responding officers did not check to see if Booker required medical attention and did not arrest the alleged attackers despite the present video evidence and multiple eye witness corroborations.
BPD Launches Investigation After Vehicle Drove into Demonstrators
In a press release on Monday, the Bloomington Police Department said it launched an investigation to determine the identity and location of the driver and passenger of a vehicle that drove into pedestrians at a demonstration on Monday. According to the press release, one pedestrian suffered abrasions to the arms. The other pedestrian was knocked unconscious by the vehicle, suffering a laceration to the head. They were later transported to the hospital by ambulance.
The Bloomingtonian reports that the Bloomington Police Department ran the plates of the attacking car, gleaned from the video of the hit and run, but that the associated address was not not valid. The video of the attack, which is graphic, has prompted some to compare it to recent vehicle attacks on protesters around the U.S., like the infamous twenty-seventeen Charlottesville car attack that killed one demonstrator and injured scores. Just this week, on July 4th, a vehicle plowed into demonstrators in Seattle. A twenty-four-year-old demonstrator later died of injuries sustained in the incident. The rise of vehicle attacks on protesters is causing some to call for using the term ‘terrorist attack’ to describe them.
Food Truck Friday Opening Date Postponed
The Food Truck Friday opening date was postponed for Bloomington. The event was set to begin on July 10th at the new Switchyard park with 10 different food truck vendors. Only a week after announcing the opening day, Director Jordan Davis postponed the opening.
He stated in a social media post that the delay was due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in Monroe County. However, many food trucks can be found around the downtown Bloomington area. Davis said there is no confirmed date to begin Food Truck Friday.
