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Photo designed by Madison True and edited by Sydney Foreman.

WFHB Local News – October 26th, 2022

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This is the WFHB Local News for Wednesday, October 26th, 2022.

Later in the program, WFHB News Correspondent Noelle Herhusky-Schneider talked to lifelong Paoli resident Jesse Laws about the Hoosier National Forest Management Plan. More in today’s feature report.

Also coming up in the next half hour, Civil or Not: The Court Case of Talevski v. Marion and the Debate over a Private Right to Sue on Disabulletin. More following today’s feature.

Bloomington Climate Action Resilience Committee

On October 18th at the Bloomington Climate Action Resilience Committee meeting, Council Member Matt Flaherty outlined a proposal to decrease air pollution in Bloomington by phasing out gas-powered equipment. Flartey explained that one strategy of the Climate Action Plan is to reduce city wide gas and diesel powered construction, recreation, and lawn equipment.

Flaherty shared what the Bloomington government should consider about the implementation, and pointed out ways they can collaborate with other local entities like Indiana University and Monroe County Community School Corporation in the future.

Flaherty suggested ideas for how they could regulate the gas-powered equipment. He said that other cities have introduced bans on when it is acceptable to use gas powered equipment.

Economic and Sustainable Development Director Alex Crowley, said the Office of the Mayor is interested in moving it forward, and wants to get the public’s input on how to best regulate gas powered emissions.

The committee discussed holding a public hearing on the ordinance in the near future.

Feature Report:

Photo courtesy of the Indiana Forest Alliance.

WFHB News Correspondent Noelle Herhusky-Schneider talked to Lifelong Paoli, IN Resident, Jesse Laws about the Hoosier National Forest Management Plan. Laws has ridden the horse trails in the Hoosier National Forest her whole life and has concerns about how the Forest Service has proposed to log and burn it.

Civil or Not: The Court Case of Talevski v. Marion HHC and the Debate over a Private Right to Sue

Marion County Corporation of Health and Human services faces a lawsuit from the family of an Indiana nursing home resident, now deceased, who allege his civil rights were violated.

A lawsuit filed by the family of nursing home resident Giorgi Talevski reaches its climax as oral arguments are slated to come before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 8.

The lawsuit filed against the Marion County Corporation of Health and Human Services contends that Valparaiso Care, a nursing home run by HHC, violated Section 1983 of the U.S. Code and the Fair Nursing Home Act by, “chemically restraining” Talevski with powerful and unnecessary psychotropic medications, which resulted in the patient’s “physical and cognitive decline and by transferring Talevski to another nursing home illegally” (WRTV, Oct 19).

The question at hand is whether a private citizen can file a federal civil rights claim for violation of a law regarding federal funding of benefit programs. The court case could eliminate the right for private citizens to sue state or federal governments who withhold benefits including Medicaid.

HHC has said it has nothing to do with the care Talevski received but rather that when people who are part of benefit programs under federal legislation are denied access to those programs, they have no right to sue in federal court, rather such enforcement should be left to the state statutes.

The HHC board allegedly has chosen to pursue the court case Talevski v. Marion HHC without a vote amongst its board. Morgan Daly of the Indiana Statewide Independent Living Council asked for each member of the Marion County HHC’s board to be fined and award her attorney fees. Daly hopes that such fines will be an incentive for board members to hold a vote for whether to continue pursuit of the Talevski case.

As the day of oral arguments draws closer, WFHB’s Disabulletin will discuss the history of court cases involving Section 1983 of the U.S. Code starting next week. In the coming weeks, we will feature commentary from experts at the IU Mauer School of Law, advocates at the Arc of Indiana and more.

Better Beware:

Up next, More Dillies on Better Beware – your weekly consumer-watchdog segment on WFHB. We turn to host and producer Richard Fish for more.

Credits:

You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
The Disabulletin was produced by Abe Shapiro.
Better Beware is produced by Richard Fish.
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.

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