WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, February 23rd, 2023.
Later in the program, WFHB Correspondent Grace Romine speaks with several local musicians about their process, influences and the local music scene. More in the bottom half of our program.
Also coming up in the next half hour, we broadcast an edition of Dark Past, Bright Future – a Black history segment produced by Bring It On’s Liz Mitchell.
The Statehouse Roundup
According to the ACLU, the Indiana House of Representatives could vote as early as today on House Bill 1608 — what people are calling the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Protesters packed the Statehouse this week to demonstrate against the bill which activists are saying would erase LGBTQ people in Indiana schools and out transgender students.
The bill has already passed through the House Committee on Education and just yesterday had its second reading in the House.
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On Wednesday, the Indiana House voted to prohibit state funding of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University’s sexual research institute, after bringing up disputed allegations of child exploitation by the institute’s founder, Alfred Kinsey.
Indiana’s House Bill 1001 is the budget bill, and Representative Larissa Sweet introduced this proposal in an amendment to the bill.
Robert Kinsey published several works on sexual research in the 1940s and 1950s. Kinsey collected survey data with over 18,000 participants. According to the Indy Star, critics accused Kinsey of encouraging sexual experimentation on children, although no evidence has ever been produced and no charges were ever brought against him.
Representative Matt Pierce, who represents the Bloomington area, said in a statement, “Yesterday’s vote to defund the Kinsey Institute based on decades-old, unfounded conspiracy theories shows the House Republicans have been captured by the extreme right wing. Rational decision making in the House is no longer possible with legislators more interested in fighting culture wars or just afraid some crazy person will defeat them in a primary election if they don’t support extreme bills.”
Amendment 2 of the budget bill, which details the defunding of the Kinsey Institute, passed out of the House by a 53 to 34 vote.
Monroe County Council
During the February 14th meeting of the Monroe County Council, local resident Carol Wilson said during public comment that she wants to see improved conditions at the county jail.
Another Monroe County resident Otter Williams offered public comment about the county’s proposal for a new jail.
A third public commenter Renee Miller criticized the county government’s response to the local jail.
The Monroe County Council will meet again for its regular session on March 14th.
Feature Report:
In today’s feature report, WFHB Correspondent Grace Romine speaks with several local musicians about their process, influences and the local music scene. She interviews Bloomington artists Mindfully Blind, Westhead and Connor McLaren. We turn to Romine for more.
Up next, we broadcast an edition of Dark Past, Bright Future – a segment produced by Bring It On’s very own, Liz Mitchell. Mitchell presents a brief history of the story of Madame C.J. Walker’s triumph over adversity to become the first Black woman millionaire in America.
Credits:
You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Noelle Herhusky-Schneider and Kade Young, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
Our feature was produced by Grace Romine.
Dark Past, Bright Future is produced by Liz Mitchell.
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.
