11 Apr 2023

North Dakota governor signs bans on trans athletes

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BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum on Tuesday evening signed two transgender athlete bans into law, effectively prohibiting transgender girls and women from joining female sports teams in K-12 and college.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate passed the bills with veto-proof majorities this year. If the governor had vetoed the bills or refused to sign them, the bills likely would’ve still become law.

At least 19 other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes. Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, especially targeting transgender people’s everyday lives — including sports, health care, bathrooms, workplaces and schools.

The Biden administration this month proposed a rule, which still faces a lengthy approval process, to forbid outright bans on transgender athletes.

In 2021, Burgum vetoed a nearly identical bill that would have banned transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools. Lawmakers didn’t have enough votes that year to override the veto.

This year, lawmakers wrote new legislation to replicate and expand that bill — including at the college level. Those bills are now law.

11 Apr 2023

Oklahoma officials deny Catholic public charter bid, for now

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Oklahoma authorities punted on a Catholic-led bid to open the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school on Tuesday, delaying a landmark decision that is eventually expected to spur a court fight over constitutional limits between church and state.

A state charter school board voted against approving an application to open a public campus that teaches students religious tenets just like a private institution. But the decision gives church leaders time to address board members’ concerns, then refile their request before a new and final vote in several weeks.

A string of faith leaders, elected officials and public school advocates urged board members to reject the proposal on Tuesday, drawing a rebuke from recently elected state Superintendent Ryan Walters.

“Funding Catholic charter schools would be unfair to taxpayers who do not share these Catholic religious beliefs,” said Clark Frailey, a co-founder of the Pastors for Oklahoma Kids public education advocacy organization, to board members as they met in Oklahoma City.

“Taxpayers will be subsidizing the indoctrination of students to a belief system that condemns their own religious faith, or lack thereof,” he said.

Walters, a nonvoting member of the charter board, pushed board members to approve the application.

“You all have heard from a lot of different folks, and you’ve heard from some radical leftists that their hatred for the Catholic Church aligns them [against] doing what’s best for kids,” Walters said. “We should distance ourselves from allowing radicals to inject their way into this and overly politicize this decision.”

Catholic Church officials formally asked Oklahoma’s virtual charter school board early this year to open the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, accelerating months of debate overgovernment support for sectarian education that has divided educators and Republicans.

Two Oklahoma attorneys general have issued divided, but nonbinding, opinions on the issue. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and Walters have supported the church’s application.

Stitt in February declared his “strong disagreement” with Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s decision to scrap a landmark legal opinion that opened the door to publicly funded religious charter schools and also staked a claim in a legal fight over charters that could be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But a last-minute memorandum from the charter board’s attorney delivered just before Tuesday’s scheduled vote warned that Oklahoma’s Constitution prohibits the use of public funds for religious or sectarian purposes, and said church officials could resubmit their application for reconsideration within 30 days of receiving formal word of its denial.

With their initial denial on Tuesday, charter board members asked the church to resolve questions about its special education programs, pedagogical approach, funding and governance structure — plus the legal arguments it believes supports its case to open.

Yet as the Supreme Court weighs taking up a separate court case with significant ramifications for the country’s charter school system, an eventual final vote is expected to prompt a fresh lawsuit from the project’s supporters or opponents.

“If we ultimately prevail, it changes education entirely across the country,” Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma told POLITICO last month.

“For some reason, because of this specious separation of church and state idea that’s not in the Constitution, we think somehow that we’ve got to have some sort of quasi-monopolistic setup in the educational market. And we do that to the detriment of our kids.”

11 Apr 2023

Looking back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

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The Democratic Party announced on Tuesday that it would return to Chicago next year for its presidential nominating convention. The Windy City has hosted the Democratic National Convention 11 times, but the 1968 event stands out more than five decades later because of bloody dayslong protests.

Democrats held the convention Aug. 26-29, four months after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and as the Vietnam War was raging. The gathering erupted in violence, leading to the activation of the National Guard and the arrest of hundreds of protesters.

The McGovern-Fraser Commission that investigated the violence characterized the event as a “police riot,” and CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite referred to the Chicago police as “thugs” on the air after seeing his reporter Dan Rather beaten on the convention floor.

The party convened to select a new presidential nominee after President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek reelection.

Vice President Herbert Humphrey received Johnson’s support for the nomination. He was challenged by Sens. Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy.

But before the convention, Kennedy was assassinated, which resulted in Sen. George McGovern vying for the nomination.

Preparing for the 1968 convention

The day before, many antiwar protesters congregated in Lincoln Park, about 10 miles from the Democratic National Convention.

Mayor Richard J. Daley had initially allowed them to gather but changed his mind that evening. Instead, he ordered the Chicago Police Department to enforce the city’s 11 p.m. curfew, hoping to remove the protesters before the convention began.

Day 1

The event got off to a shaky start. Television cameras were not allowed to live-broadcast the antiwar demonstrations outside the International Amphitheater but could film what was happening on the convention floor.

Day 2

The convention became divided between antiwar protesters and Johnson supporters. That night a prime-time debate on Vietnam was delayed until after midnight, when most Americans would be asleep.

Protesters gathered at a nearby hotel where many of the delegates were staying. Police officers could not keep the peace and Daley sent in troops from the Illinois National Guard, which had been activated by Gov. Samuel Shapiro.

Day 3

The anticipated televised Vietnam debate aired, and thousands of antiwar protesters gathered in Grant Park, where they had a permit to assemble.

The National Guard prevented the protesters from reaching the amphitheater. Later in the afternoon, a teen climbed a flagpole and lowered the American flag, and the police arrested him.

One of the protest organizers, Rennie Davis, told the police that the group had a legal protest permit and requested that the officers leave the park. The officers then beat Davis unconscious.

Another protest organizer, Tom Hayden, encouraged protesters to return to the hotel. However, early in the evening, outside the hotel, police officers began attacking antiwar protesters with billy clubs and tear gas.

Meanwhile, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, in his nominating speech for McGovern, referred to “Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago” as televisions inside the convention hall showed the riots happening outside.

Later at the convention, delegates voted for Humphrey to receive the presidential nomination.

Day 4

The police used tear gas to stop the remaining protesters and antiwar delegates from reaching the amphitheater.

Officers arrested over 650 protesters during the convention.

11 Apr 2023

Opinion: How Paris is Out-Swimming New York City

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“As yet another hot and humid summer approaches, exacerbated by the prospect of rising temperatures, we have fewer public pools per capita than any other major U.S. city and 520 miles of waterfront. As Paris reclaims its riverbanks for public recreation, here we sit in the Big Apple, surrounded by the Hudson, Harlem, and East Rivers, with zero access for swimming.”

A little over a year from now, a hundred of the world’s top athletes will be plunging into the murky waters of the Seine for a 1.5 kilometer swim. After it hosts the Olympics, the city of Paris plans to open 26 new floating pools—in the Seine—by 2025, four of them smack in the center of town.

This innovative expansion comes on top of thousands of Parisians who’ve been able to bathe in the Bassin de la Villette since 2016, making the French the undisputed global leaders in aquatic urban re-invigoration.

Meanwhile, as yet another hot and humid New York City summer approaches, exacerbated by the prospect of rising temperatures, we have fewer public pools per capita than any other major U.S. city and 520 miles of waterfront. As Paris reclaims its riverbanks for public recreation, here we sit in the Big Apple, surrounded by the Hudson, Harlem, and East Rivers, with zero access for swimming. Paris, the city of Vélib’ (which pre-dated Citi Bike) and the Promenade Plantée (which pre-dated the High Line), is again leading the way; and we are falling behind.

So why are we unable to access our rivers for swimming in New York City?


Simply put, the regulation around public access to our waterways has not been revisited in decades. Since then, innovative technologies, advanced engineering and process controls have been developed that can support safe river access.

We have also greatly improved our waterways. As has been reported by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), New York’s rivers and harbors are the cleanest they’ve been in years. The average fecal coliform and Enterococcus levels have dramatically decreased over the last three decades, due in large part to the cessation of raw sewage dumping through the full build-out of New York City’s Wastewater Resource Recovery Facilities, the elimination of illegal discharges into the water body and the reduction of Combined Sewer Overflows.

At Friends of + POOL, we have reviewed many of the new technologies and advancements with scientists and health risk assessors. We have even developed some of our own. But the current NYC health code does not support public access in the waters surrounding Manhattan. And yet, when you compare data from existing bathing beaches collected under the city’s current monitoring practices, the case for river swimming with wet weather advisories is strong.

Since 2021, Friends of + POOL has been undergoing diligence for river swimming at a prospective site selected by the New York City Economic Development Corporation that is currently not supported by the existing health code. In 2021, data at the site met recreational water quality thresholds more frequently than two of the city’s already permitted bathing beaches, according to the 2021 Beach Report. In 2022, data at the site met thresholds for swimming more frequently than six existing bathing beaches and the 30-day geometric mean was better than 11 beaches currently in operation.

Mayor Eric Adams is in full support of safe river swimming. In accordance with City Planning’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, City Hall has directed city agencies to consider proposed solutions and develop new standards for permitting nontraditional pools and beaches, such as floating pools, to increase access. This leadership is critical given the city previously relied on the existing code and monitoring practices, which do align with federal and state guidelines, but have not yet accounted for the new and creative ways in which we have advanced in recent years.

There are plenty of ways for New York City to lead and, within city purview, create safe, conditional access points. When our regulators join cities like Paris to thoughtfully consider how our city Health Code can adopt new technologies, robust monitoring, and advanced engineering to safely access the rivers for swimming, it will give a gift to all New Yorkers that will endure for generations to come.

Let this be the last summer that we sweat it out on the streets! It’s time to reclaim our rivers for swimming. As the great Reverend Al Green says, “take me to the river.”

Kara Meyer is Managing Director of Friends of + POOL, a nonprofit that has been advocating for, and designing solutions to, safe urban river swimming since 2015.