This is the WFHB Local News for Tuesday, November 9th, 2021.

Later in the program, WFHB Assistant News Director Noelle Herhusky-Schneider speaks with Steven Stewart about his concerns for logging in the Hoosier National Forest. More coming up in today’s feature report.

Also coming up in the next half hour, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a federal lawsuit against a school corporation in Terre Haute after employees refused to allow transgender students to use their preferred restrooms. More in today’s headlines.

But first, your local news brief:

In COVID news, the Monroe County Mask Mandate is slated to remain in effect for probably several weeks, as reported by Penny Caudill, administrator of the Monroe County Health Department. At the moment, Monroe county remains in the yellow rank of advisory, meaning that cases continue to rise above the 50 cases per every 100,000 persons threshold that must be met for a county to be classified as blue, the rank provided to counties no longer requiring a mask mandate.

According to statistics from the Indiana State Department of Health, which are updated every Wednesday, the week of Nov 1 saw cases in Monroe County increase to 121 cases per 100,000 persons. These statistics therefore exceed the required 50 cases per every 100,000 persons needed for the mandate to be lifted. According to the Herald Times, Although over 57% of people in Monroe County are fully vaccinated, and first-dose vaccinations have trickled to less than 300 per week, since vaccines are now available to 5-11 year old children, vaccinations are likely to climb in the next few weeks.

At Friday’s weekly news conference for updates on pandemic response, Caudill sought to bolster public morale and encourage hope as the holiday season approaches, saying, “As we come to a time of giving, I would request that we not give each other infections, be they the flu, COVID, or any other respiratory infection,” Caudill said. “Instead, let’s give all of our efforts to giving grace and being kind. Get vaccinated, follow regulations and recommendations to reduce transmission. We will get through this.”

The Indiana Supreme Court-ordered eviction diversion program has been a mixed bag in its first week of operation, gaining willing participants in only eight out of 331 cases heard from Nov. 1-5 where tenants and landlords were asked if they wanted to participate.

This new program, introduced by the Indiana Supreme Court on September 13,seeks to utilize the over $410 million in federal funds provided to Indiana state and local governments last December for emergency rental assistance (ERA).

On November 1, the program announced new eviction reforms, including that courts must advise tenants and landlords at the first hearing of any eviction of alternative solutions such as rental assistance or participating in a settlement conference, in which tenant and landlord engage in a discussion facilitated by a neutral helper to ensure productivity on both sides. Participation in the eviction diversion program would pause the proceedings for 90 days or until either landlord or tenant requests it. However, both landlord and tenant must first agree to participate in the program, which has been an issue since landlords may worry about waiting on rental assistance payments that may or still have never arrived, an opinion shared during an eviction hearing in Lawrence Township Small Claims Court by Robert James, whose firm, Sandlin Law group, represents five of the twenty top evicting landlords and property managers in Marion County.

However, according to the Indianapolis Star, a positive for landlords is that participating in the program would allow them to obtain rent owed and late fees without having to make legal arguments in court, where a favorable outcome is not guaranteed.