This is the WFHB Local News for Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021.

Later in the program, we have an excerpt from Partisan Gardens - a locally-grown, monthly public affairs program on WFHB focusing on food systems. More coming up in today’s feature reports.

Also coming up in the next half hour, we have Better Beware - your weekly consumer-watchdog segment hosted by our very own Richard Fish. More in the bottom half of tonight’s program.

But first, your local news brief:

Photo courtesy of University of Michigan.

The amount of COVID-19 cases in Monroe County have gone down 32% in a 14-day period, with no deaths related to the coronavirus in the past two weeks. 40% of the Monroe County population is fully vaccinated - only a 1% change from last week. Monroe County is still considered a high risk area for those who have not been vaccinated.

On May 17th eight graduate workers filed a discrimination complaint against IU through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This was announced in a press release from the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition. The complaint explains that IU discriminated against international students when the Office of International Services sent international students an email the first week of March 2021 that detailed consequences of not paying fees on time. This email was not sent to U.S. citizens. Consequences include unenrollment which has a significant impact on international students - leading to visa status violations and deportation. IU Spokesperson Chuck Carney says the discrimination complaint is without merit.

From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday at Switchyard Park will mark the seasonal opening of Food Truck Friday which will include live music in the evening, cocktails and of course, food trucks. This family-friendly event will be open to the public.

RBBCSC School Board Special Meeting

The Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation Board of Trustees held a special June 1st meeting to discuss paying RBBCSC staff and teachers a stipend for their work during the 2020 to 2021 school year. Superintendent Doctor Jerry Sanders said that he started work on getting stipends as soon as he found out he could. He talked about how hard faculty members worked to make online and hybrid learning work during a global pandemic.

Board members passed the resolution unanimously.

Monroe County Commissioners

At today’s Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting, County Attorney Jeff Cockerill presented an agreement to review and analyze the City of Bloomington’s Annexation Fiscal Plan. He explained the report would need to be thorough on a short timeline.

Reporter Dave Askins asked if the report would cover the annexation’s impact on property taxes for residents who already live within city limits. Cockerill responded that it could, but the analysis would not be finished before the August 4th public annexation meeting.

Commissioners voted to approve the partnership 2 to 0.

Monroe County Personnel Administration Committee 

The Monroe County Personnel Administration Committee discussed the proposed Public Information Coordinator position. At the June 1st meeting, Committee member Marty Hawk showed concern over establishing a position to represent the whole of county government. She said that this position makes sense for City government, but not for County government.

Commissioners’ Administrator Angie Purdie said this was not what the role would do. She clarified the Public Information Coordinator was an informational role, not a representative one.

The Personnel Administration Committee voted 2-1 to approve the recommendations, with Councilor Hawk voting against. The position will now return to the County Council for final discussion and approval.

Mask Mandate Lifted for Those Fully Vaccinated