WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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This is the WFHB Local News for Tuesday, August 20th, 2024.
Later in the program, we have an excerpt from the Brown County Hour – a monthly, community-generated radio program originating in beautiful Nashville, Indiana. More in today’s feature report.
Also coming up in the next half hour, we have Lil Bub’s Lil Show – a co-production between WFHB and Lil Bub’s Big Fund.
WFHB Local News Brief:
A federal judge has granted a motion from the state’s attorney general’s office to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.
Earlier this year, the ACLU of Indiana sued the state in an effort to block Senate Enrolled Act 202. This higher-education law increases oversight of secondary education and requires tenured professors to be reviewed every five years. Furthermore, it requires that professors provide “free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity” and would not allow them to receive tenure or promotions if they teach political views unrelated to their discipline.
Senior Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled in favor of Attorney General Todd Rokita’s motion for dismissal. Barker wrote that the lawsuit lacked “subject matter jurisdiction” that showed real harm to the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
The ACLU of Indiana commented on the judge’s dismissal of the trial saying, “Today, a U.S. District Court Judge granted the state’s motion to dismiss an ACLU of Indiana lawsuit challenging Senate Enrolled Act 202. The suit was filed to protect the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of faculty at Indiana public colleges and universities. Plaintiffs in the suit, filed earlier this year, teach at Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana University Indianapolis, and Indiana University Bloomington. The ACLU of Indiana is disappointed and is currently considering options for next steps to protect academic freedom at our state’s public colleges and universities.”
Senate Enrolled Act 202 has faced criticism from major public universities and drew controversy for its oversight over secondary education. The Purdue-West Lafayette and Indiana University-Bloomington chapters of the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, released a statement opposing the legislation in February .
The statement said, “Adoption of SB 202 would severely damage the ability of Indiana’s two public Research-1 universities—Purdue-West Lafayette and IU-Bloomington—to recruit and retain outstanding faculty, erasing the State of Indiana’s uniquely prominent national profile in higher education.”
On August 9th, Attorney General Rokita wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “To protect Hoosier students in the classroom, we will continue defending this new Indiana law, which ensures that state universities foster diversity of thought — not indoctrination.”
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Indiana is set to resume the death penalty after a 15-year hiatus.
In June 2024, Governor Eric Holcomb said that Indiana is seeking an execution by lethal injection for Joseph Corcoran, a man convicted of killing four people in 1997.
The state said it’s seeking execution for the inmate after acquiring a drug used for lethal injections. It would be the first time Indiana has used capital punishment since 2009.
Indiana has a long history of false convictions for death penalty cases. According to the Indiana Public Defender Council, of the 97 people sentenced to death in the state, 60 of these sentences have been “commuted, reversed or dismissed.”
Moreover, the ACLU of Indiana states that people of color are more likely to be prosecuted for capital murder, sentenced to death and executed.
The ACLU said in a statement, “the death penalty is a barbaric, error-prone practice that holds our state and country in the past while perpetuating racial disparities. It is a broken system from start to finish. The time has come for Indiana and America at-large, to end the failed experiment of state-sanctioned executions.”
All federal executions since 1995 have taken place at the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute making Indiana the epicenter of the federal death penalty in America.
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The Democratic National Convention kicked off on Monday in Chicago.
Indiana sent 88 Democratic delegates to the convention. Among these delegates include three familiar names from Bloomington.
Mayor Kerry Thomson, City Clerk Nicole Bolden and City Council Member Sydney Zulich are attending the convention as delegates.
At the end of the four-day convention, delegates will nominate Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as the Democratic nominees for the 2024 presidential election.
Monroe County Commissioners
At the Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting on August 14th, the commissioners updated the community on projects they have been working on.
First, Commissioner Julie Thomas spoke on the environmental report on the North Park Project where the commissioners are looking into putting the new jail facility, and she spoke on the annexation trial results.
Commissioner Penny Githens continued the update and shared information on the proposed Cost of Living increase they proposed to the council.
During public comment, Bloomington Chamber of Commerce President Eric Spoonmore about a potential new location for the new jail.
A local Ellettsville Resident, Craig Cowden, also spoke on the jail location, saying that he didn’t like the current proposed location, and is interested in selling his property for the new jail site.
Another Ellettsville Resident, Dee Buress, also gave public comment, saying they are Cowden’s neighbor and are interested in selling their property adjacent to Cowden’s for the new jail facility as well.
The commissioners then moved onto new businesses and heard from Highway Department Director Lisa Ridge about a contract for the design of a bridge called Business 37 North Bridge #913.
Ridge explained that they received a grant from INDOT for the reconstruction of a bridge. Ridge asked the commissioners to approve the contract for the design of the bridge, and said that the construction of the bridge won’t take place until the fiscal year of 2029.
The commissioners approved the design agreement with INDOT for the bridge replacement design unanimously.
The next Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting scheduled for August 21st was canceled. They will meet again in two weeks on August 28th.
Feature Report:
Up next, we have an excerpt from the Brown County Hour – a monthly, community-generated radio program originating in beautiful Nashville, Indiana. We will hear Brown County Hour Volunteer Lucy Schultz speak with Patricia Rhoden Bartels about her art. Lucy Schultz has more.
Up next, we have Lil Bub’s Lil Show – a co-production between WFHB and Lil Bub’s Big Fund. We turn now to that segment on the WFHB Local News.
Credits:
You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Kade Young and Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
Our feature was produced by Lucy Schultz, Chad Carrothers and Chuck Wills.
Lil Bub’s Lil Show is produced by Christine Brackenhoff and Stacy Bridavsky.
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.
