This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, October 8th, 2020.

Later in the program, we have an excerpt from last week’s episode of Interchange titled “Draining the Heartland: Authoritarian Populism in Rural America.” WFHB’s Bradi Heaberlin speaks with Marc Edelman, an Anthropology professor and affiliate of the Graduate Center at Hunter College in New York City on the hollowing out of rural America and the rise of authoritarian populism.

Also coming up in the next half hour, WFHB Correspondent Aaron Comforty follows up with a story from yesterday about disturbing reports at the Monroe County Correctional Center.

But first, your local headlines.

1,488 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Indiana on Wednesday, according to the Indiana State Department of Health. There were 16 newly reported deaths. Locally, both Monroe and Lawrence Counties saw 21 new confirmed cases yesterday. Brown County reported one new case.

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At the beginning of Wednesday’s Bloomington City Council meeting, council president Steve Volan spoke in support of renaming Jordan Avenue. The comments come in response to an Indiana University Board of Trustees vote to rename three IU campus locations also named after former Indiana University president and eugenicist David Starr Jordan. Volan proposed renaming the street after Viola and George Taliaferro. Viola served as a judge in Monroe County from 1995 to 2004, and was Monroe County’s first black judge. Her husband, George, played football at Indiana University and became the first Black player drafted into the National Football League in 1949. 

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Monroe County community leaders announced via a joint press release today that a new COVID-19 testing site will be opening later this month. The press release, signed by Mayor John Hamilton, President of IU Health Brian Shockney, and members of the Monroe County Health Department and Board of Commissioners, states that the new public testing site will be open through June of 2021.  The new testing site will be located in downtown Bloomington and open to the public by appointment. 

One big factor in establishing the downtown testing site is to make sure public COVID testing is continuously available in Bloomington. Currently, the Indiana Department of Health has contracted OptumServe, who has a public testing site currently open at the National Guard Armory. However, the state contracts OptumServe on a month-by-month basis. A second site guarantees that Bloomington residents will still have access to public COVID testing when the OptumServe site is eventually decommissioned.  More information about the testing site, including the site’s exact location and appointment registration, will be shared in the coming weeks.

Monroe County Commissioners

Monroe County Commissioners approved General Obligation Bonds not to exceed three point one million dollars for the completion of multiple capital projects during their October 7th meeting. Commissioner Julie Thomas described one amendment to the proposal since its previewing at a September County Council meeting.

Thomas said other projects include highway department vehicle and equipment upgrades, county passenger vehicles, trail connection, park projects, Justice building Core switches, office renovations, and sheriff’s department equipment.

County Attorney Jeff Cockerill said the County Council must approve the bonds before they could be issued.

Bloomington City Council 

The Bloomington City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to modify local income tax allocations during their October 7th meeting. City Clerk Nicole Bolden presented the modifications.

Council Administrator Attorney Stephen Lucas said this process is completed annually by the tax council to allocate appropriate funds t...