Hey hey all. Here’s some brief news today.
The board of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library has denied requests that it include care for transgender individuals in its healthcare plan. That move will most likely cause further legal action from Rachel Dovel, a library employee who has been fighting the library for refusing to offer the benefits to her. Dovel began transitioning last year and says she needs medical procedures to fully align with her gender identity. This spring, Dovel filed a complaint with the federal government over the library’s lack of transgender benefits.
The move is also drawing rebuke from some local officials.
“I’m upset; I’m angry,” City Councilman Chris Seelbach wrote in a social media post following the decision. Seelbach, Cincinnati’s first openly gay council member, has been an advocate for LGBTQ rights during his time on Council.
• It’s official: Santa Ono has left the building. University of Cincinnati officials announced yesterday that former president Ono has taken an offer from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The school has tapped Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Beverly Davenport to be interim president as it searches for a permanent replacement for Ono. The school says it tried hard to negotiate to keep Ono on board. Ono yesterday said he has loved UC and Cincinnati, but called the job offer in Vancouver — where he was born — a unique opportunity.
• UC has another potential headache: It might have violated laws around public meetings in the scramble to respond to Ono’s impending departure. State law requires the board governing the university to give at least 24 hours public notice before it meets. The board failed to do that when it met Monday and another time a week earlier on June 6. The school says these meetings were emergency meetings to discuss Ono’s departure, which Ohio law says can be exempt from the 24 hour rule as long as the school notifies the public as soon as the meeting is scheduled. But critics, including The Cincinnati Enquirer, say that notification never went out.
• Hamilton County Commissioners will decide between two different requests for funding for the county’s Job and Family Services agency from county taxpayers in November. The debate is between keeping a current levy or raising the tax rate slightly to better fund JFS, which has been involved in a years-long court battle over the way it receives federal child services money. Commissioners settled that fight this year for more than $20 million. Now, with staffing at JFS down, commissioners must decide whether to present a levy increase to taxpayers who are likely to be deciding among other increases. The two potential levy options were suggested by an independent committee, which also looked into how efficient JFS was with its money. That review committee found the agency to be mostly effective in its spending.
• This Thursday is Dump the Pump Day, also known as the day the rest of the country attempts to live the way car-less folks like me live everyday. Welcome to the club! I kid, but there is a pretty cool initiative for those looking to ditch their cars for the day. Metro is offering free bus fare for the day, entertainment and other goodies for its #61616 day. If you’re into it, you can go to the transit agency’s website and sign up for a free Thursday day pass. You can also check out local bands and grab free food from Busken Bakery, Pit to Plate BBQ and other restaurants at various places around the city.
• Hundreds gathered at Fountain Square and Below Zero Lounge yesterday at vigils in remembrance of those who died at a mass shooting in a gay club in Orlando Sunday. That shooting left 50 people, including the gunman, dead, and another 53 wounded. Cincinnatians joined the LGBTQ community and its allies across the world in numerous rallies and vigils yesterday responding to the shooting.
• Finally, here’s another disturbing Donald Trump move that has the presumptive GOP presidential nominee creeping further toward authoritarianism: The real estate mogul and presidential hopeful has banned one of the nation’s most respected mainstream newspapers from his campaign rallies. Reporters for The Washington Post will no longer be allowed press credentials granting them access to Trump rallies, his campaign announced yesterday. The move comes after Trump criticized negative stories about his campaign from the paper.
This article appears in Jun 8-15, 2016.