In this edition of WYSO Weekend:
- Police actions, policies and procedures are big in the news these days. Big cases in Beavercreek and Cleveland Ohio, Ferguson Missouri and most recently, New York are keeping the issue in the news. This week, the Yellow Springs police department requested outside help to determine whether criminal charges should be brought against one of its sergeants. Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly's office will investigate alleged criminal misconduct by Sergeant Naomi Penrod. WYSO's Wayne Baker spoke with Yellow Springs Interim Police Chief David Hale who requested that investigation.
- Eighteen months ago, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson vehemently rejected state claims that the city’s police department had “systemic” problems. But this week, the U.S. Justice Department used the same term to describe what was taking place there. Mayor Jackson is now embracing a plan to overhaul the department. For Ohio Public Radio, WKSU’s M.L. Schultze has more on the results of a nearly two-year review that includes a federal monitor.
December 10th, some schools in Dayton will be visited by volunteers who will assist teachers throughout the day and share their experiences with students. The initiative is called "Men of Color” go back to school and it was designed to introduce minority students to positive role models. The program is part of Mayor Nan Whaley's City of Learners initiative and an extension of the Obama administration’s My Brother's Keeper program. Dayton Public Schools, the Dayton Education Association, and the local United Way chapter are also partners in the project. City Commissioner Jeffrey Mims heads the Men of Color Committee. We spoke with him at his home in Dayton this week.
Between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s, about three and a half million people migrated from Appalachia to the urban manufacturing centers of the Midwest. Over 40,000 came to the Dayton area from West Virginia, Tennessee, and especially Eastern Kentucky, seeking work at companies like National Cash Register, Frigidaire, and General Motors. They brought their culture and their music along with them. Archives Fellow Jocelyn Robinson brings us the rich mountain heritage in the WYSO audio collection, preserved through the efforts of three local brothers. *To hear songs in their entirety and to see pictures of the artists featured, go to wyso.org. Major funding for Rediscovered Radio is provided by the Ohio Humanities Council and the Greene County Public Library. The WYSO digital audio archives will open for public listening in 2015.
Bill Felker has this week's Poor Will's Miami Valley Almanack.
