Celebrating Black History Month: Fritz Pollard & Bobby Marshall, first African-American athletes in the NFL

Bobby Marshall, Fritz Pollard

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard and Robert Wells "Bobby" Marshall became the first African-American athletes in what would become the National Football League in 1920.

Fritz Pollard went to Brown University and majored in chemistry(!).  He played halfback on Brown's football team (becoming the first black player for Brown), which went to the 1916 Rose Bowl.  He played pro football (running back) for the Akron Pros and became a co-head coach in 1921.  He also played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros, Gilberton Cadamounts, Union Club of Phoenixville and Providence Steam Rollers. 

In the 1930s, he founded his own professional football team, the Brown Bombers, but the Depression ended their run.  Pollard left football and went into other ventures.

Bobby Marshall played football for the University of Minnesota and went on to play professional for the Rock Island Independents, Minneapolis Marines and the Duluth Kelleys.

Celebrating Black History Month: Andrea Jenkins, first African-American transgender woman elected to public office

Andrea Jenkins, born 1961 in Chicago, Illinois, is the first African-American transgender woman to be elected to public office in the U.S.  She attended the University of Minnesota and afterwards was hired by the Hennepin County government where she worked for ten years.

She worked as an aide for Robert Lilligren who sat on the Minneapolis City Council for four years.  Then she went to work for Elizabeth Glidden when she was elected to the city council.  When Glidden announced she would not run for reelection, Jenkins announced she would run to represent Minneapolis' 8th Ward on the city council.  She won the election on November 7, 2017 with more than 70% of the vote.

Toxic algae threatens Toledo while Pruitt fiddles

Since 2010, the U.S. has seen at least 300 toxic algae blooms in its lakes and ponds, and Lake Erie has experienced some of the worst blooms ever observed. In 2014, a bloom poisoned the water supply for Toledo, OH, affecting 400,000 people. 

Last year, head of the Trump Environmental Pollution Agency Pruitt refused to declare Lake Erie "impaired" under the Clean Water Act.  According to U.S. News, the TEPA said they agreed with state regulators who said they were making progress, and recognized the efforts to reduce pollution feeding the algae.

In April 2017, Ohio EPA Administrator Craig Butler recognized that voluntary farming incentives, such as cutting phosphorus pollution by 40% from 2008 levels by 2025 were not working.

A year later, nothing has changed but once hypothesized, now proven, the growth in algae blooms are related to global warming, and they are only to get worse.  In March, a group of scientists from the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Sea Grant and the EPA released a study that concluded increased greenhouse gas emissions are directly responsible for the increase in blooms.  And as the algae blooms decay, they release more greenhouse gases, a vicious circle.

Furthermore, The Donald, who carried Ohio in the 2016 election, has proposed budget cuts that include cutting funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.  The program funds quality oversight, runoff mitigation and habitat preservation, among many other activities.

GOP Governor John Kasich recently declared "only parts" of Lake Erie as impaired, because the middle of the lake, for example, is not impaired.

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz is not happy.  He claims that the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation holes too much influence on Ohio lawmakers, and Toledoans are paying the price.

Obviously, Pruitt is much too busy with this and that to care about Ohio.

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2017/06/21/government-report-says-great-lakes-in-bad-condition-lake-erie-worst-of-the-bunch

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/04/17/new-stricer-regulations-coming-for-ohio-farmers-as-kasich-declares-lake-erie-officially-impaired

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/05/16/scientists-say-lake-erie-toxic-algae-blooms-could-be-part-of-climate-change-loop

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/ohio/articles/2017-05-23/epa-rejects-declaring-lake-eries-waters-in-ohio-impaired

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2017/05/26/the-lake-erie-reckoning-is-here-federal-government-and-ohio-give-cold-shoulder-to-regional-water-supply