This is the WFHB Local News for Monday, March 22nd, 2021.

Later in the program, we have the latest edition of A Few Minutes with the Mayor - a weekly interview segment with Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, where we ask him listener-posed questions on community issues. More coming up in today’s feature report.

Also coming up, the NCAA issued an apology after reports of a weight room disparity between the women’s and men’s basketball tournament. More in today’s headlines.

Your Local News Brief:

Photo courtesy of University of Michigan.

After two months of a significant downward trend, Indiana’s Covid-19 numbers are back to where they were in July of last year, with around 750 new cases per day.

Deaths are at their lowest point since record keeping began, back in March 2020. Experts credit the vaccination campaign and the immunity than millions of people have from actually have Covid-19, with slowing the spread.

However, for the the past couple weeks, Indiana and much of the U.S.’s Covid numbers have stopped declining, and have remained fairly flat.

The flattening of the curve suggests that more contagious variants are likely spreading locally and nationally, and could threaten to increase Covid-19 rates in the coming weeks.

On Saturday protesters held a demonstration called, the March to End The Madness. The goal was to protest economic inequality in Bloomington, as perpetuated by The City of Bloomington’s government and Indiana University.

The main issue concerned people without housing, who have been forced to set up tents in city parks to find shelter and safety.

The City of Bloomington has evicted people without housing a number of times in the past year. Twice Mayor John Hamilton’s orders to evict the Seminary park encampment spawned protests and wide local publicity.

The March started and Indiana University President Michael McRobbie's house. A symbolic criticism of president McRobbie, who, in 2019, earned almost a million dollars from his Indiana University compensation.

His more-than a decade’s long tenure as president was characterized by his general refusal to engage with the press, consistently rising tuition, billions of dollars spent on construction projects and technology investments, and austerity measures that saw the freezing of graduate worker compensation and entry level administration hiring, despite mass understaffing in a number of critical departments.

The Marchers pitched tents in the tailgating fields by the sports stadiums, where NCAA basketball tournament games were being held.

Protestors decried the Millions earned yearly by university sports coaches, highlighting the recent nearly eleven million dollar severance package given to the former basketball coach Archie miller earlier this month.

COVID-19 Press Conference 

WFHB Correspondent Sydney Foreman provides an update of the local Covid-19 response in the latest joint press conference with the City of Bloomington, Monroe County and Indiana University (Photo courtesy of ABC Chicago).

Monroe County Health Administrator Penny Caudill said the Monroe County Convention Center will only be providing second dose COVID-19 vaccines through April. Indiana University Assistant Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Kirk White stated the convention center clinic will be transitioning to IU’s Assembly Hall during their Match 19th COVID-19 press conference.

White stated both IU affiliated staff and community volunteers would run their vaccination clinic. He mentioned a mass vaccination clinic was under consideration.

Indiana University Health South Central Region President Brian Shockney said over 50 thousand vaccines have been administered at the Bloomington hospital site. He mentioned free rides are available for peop...