Julie Philipp

WXXI News Director Julie Philipp and Democrat and Chronicle Business Reporter Matt Daneman discuss the local business headlines for the week ending May 25, 2012.

Click on the video box below to watch the segment from Need to Know Rochester.

WXXI News Director Julie Philipp interviews Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks in studio, a follow-up to the 2012 State of the County address.

Also, an artist uses toothpicks and Elmer's Glue to create a message of unity at Rochester's Assisi Institute.   And one last look at host Julie Philipp's rappel down the First Federal Plaza building.

Every year, the Seneca Waterways Council of the Boy Scouts conducts a fundraiser called 21 Stories for Scouts.

 It works like this:  Anyone who raises at least $1,000 for the scouts earns a trip down the side of the First Federal Plaza Building in downtown Rochester -- using a harness and ropes.

WXXI News Director Julie Philipp recently took part in this event and sent an audio postcard.

The City of Rochester is launching a new community outreach effort called ROC the Bike!  It's one more step toward obtaining Bicycle Friendly Community status from the League of American Bicyclists according to transportation specialist Eric Frisch.

"We hope to expand that in the future, put that into print media and others, as we move forward with the idea that yea we want to educate drivers as well as cyclists about rules of the road," Frisch said in an interview on WXXI’s Need to Know Rochester. The City is celebrating Bike Week this week.

WXXI News Director Julie Philipp interviews Jody Siegle of the Monroe County School Boards Association about school budget votes set for Tuesday, May 15.

Click on the video box below to watch the interview that originally aired on Need to Know Rochester on Friday, May 11, 2012.

WXXI News Director Julie Philipp interviews former Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson about the financial challenges facing Rochester and other American cities in the face of rising costs and declining tax bases.

Click on the video box below to watch the interview that originally aired on Need to Know Rochester on Friday, May 4, 2012

In his State of the City address this week, Rochester Mayor Tom Richards says cities like Rochester can no longer rely on property tax revenue to provide the services citizens expect.  He's calling for a new way of financing city governments.  Without that, he warns, cities are destined for cultural, social, and financial bankruptcy.  We'll explore this issue with former Rochester Mayor William Johnson, now a distinguished public policy professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.

WXXI's Helene Biandudi reports on the influence of rap and hip hop music among young people in and around Rochester.

The story examines the power the music has to bring people together, but also looks at the potential negative impact when it glorifies violence and demeans women. Our cameras visited the classroom of Dr. Miri Pardo at St. John Fisher College where they study rap & hip hop.

Also, WXXI News Director Julie Philipp leads a discussion about the issue with the Democrat and Chronicle Editorial Board's James Lawrence and Erica Bryant.

On average, apartment-dwellers in the City of Rochester are putting 42% of their incomes toward rent-well above the federal affordable housing standard of 30%.

To help out, the federal government supplies vouchers to low-income residents through a program called Section 8. But Rochester Housing Authority Executive Director Alex Castro says the program isn't keeping up with demand.

WXXI News Director Julie Philipp interviews Interim Rochester City School Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and Rochester Teachers' Association President Adam Urbanski about the district's current budget situation in comparison to last year's process.

Click on the video box below to watch the interview which aired on WXXI's Need to Know Rochester on April 6, 2012.