This is the WFHB Local News for Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025.

In today’s newscast, WFHB Correspondent Max Schneider speaks with Political Scientist Jeff Isaac about Indiana public colleges eliminating nearly 20 percent of their degree programs. That’s coming up in today’s feature report.

That’s Shelby VanDerMoere from the Bloomington Fire Department, on new training materials for downtown workers to mediate conflict with the unhoused. Do we really need 9-1-1 for this or could we just talk this out? That’s coming up next on the WFHB Local News.

Feature Reports:

People who work in downtown Bloomington will soon get access to training on how to de-escalate tense situations involving the unhoused. You might be surprised to hear that such training didn’t already exist, and you might be even more surprised to hear where the idea came from. Correspondent Luke Janke has that story in a special report produced in partnership with The Media School at Indiana University.

Starting July 1st, Indiana public colleges eliminated, suspended or consolidated nearly 20 percent of degree programs. This follows legislation at the Indiana Statehouse that requires programs with small numbers of graduates be eliminated. In today’s feature report, WFHB News Correspondent Max Schneider speaks with Jeff Isaac, political science professor at IU, about what impact the elimination of these degrees will have for the university and the city of Bloomington as a whole. We turn to Max Schneider for more.

Up next, Government.exe, a show that explains what’s happening in state government. Each episode focuses on a bill from the Indiana General Assembly. We interview experts in the fields these bills impact, asking for their insights on how the legislation could affect their work, what might have been the motivation behind this kind of legislation, and how it affects hoosiers. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Whitehead – associate professor of sociology at IUI, and author of “American Idolatry” gives us insight into how Christian Nationalism connects to free market capitalism and why it seems that more and more legislation is being influenced by this ideology. We now turn to Episode 2 of Government.exe on the WFHB Local News.

Up next, “Predicting the Future” on Better Beware – your weekly consumer-watchdog segment on WFHB. We turn to host and producer Richard Fish for more.

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