WFHB FireHouse Broadcasting

Former Mother Hubbard's Cupboard director Libby Yarnelle succumbs to cancer at age twenty-nine; an eighty-foot dive into a local limestone quarry spells death for a Bloomington resident; the Monroe County Voting Systems Advisory Council recommends using paper ballots that would then be digitally scanned, Bloomington’s unemployment rate rose to six percent last month; a state Senate panel amends the House-passed budget bill to more closely resemble Governor Mitch Daniels’ two-year fiscal blueprint, and local lawmaker Vi Simpson criticizes a "continuance" bill that would allow the state to continue to operate if a budget is not passed before the June 30 deadline; the local jail reform group Decarcerate Monroe County will visit the jail Sunday to support dads and sons on Father's Day.
FEATURE
The pro-union activist group Jobs with Justice stages a picket line in front of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and in protest of the Chamber’s lobbying against it. This bill is currently before both houses of Congress and would reform crucial elements of labor law regarding how unions are formed. The Bloomington Chamber joined a delegation from four states on a lobbying jaunt to Washington early this month, to urge lawmakers like Senator Evan Bayh to vote against the bill. This move has drawn the ire of union bosses like Jackie Yenna of the White River Central Labor Council. Yenna played host on the picket line today, introducing guest speakers Isabel Piedmont and Andy Ruff, who both currently serve on the Bloomington city council. We’ll then follow IU support staff union leader Peter Kaczmarczyk into the chamber offices, where chamber employee Morgan Hutton asks him to leave. News director Chad Carrothers is allowed to stay to get a response from chamber director Christy Gillenwater.
DOWNBEAT
Our resident music critic Mark Tschida presents his top local concert picks for this week in a new edition of the Downbeat.