Good Monday ladies and gentleman, this is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Monday, July 18th, 2022. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend with you and yours’, so let’s start this week off right. Here’s what you may have missed over the weekend: 
 
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/lia-thomas-nominated-university-pennsylvania-ncaa-woman-year-award
 
Lia Thomas nominated by University of Pennsylvania for NCAA 'Woman of the Year' award
 
The University of Pennsylvania nominated swimmer Lia Thomas for the NCAA "Woman of the Year" award.
 
According to an announcement from the NCAA, the University of Pennsylvania nominated the transgender athlete for the award, which recognizes female student-athletes.
 
"Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers," the NCAA nomination page reads.
 
NCAA member schools "are encouraged to celebrate their top graduating female student-athletes by nominating them for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award," the announcement reads.
 
After member schools make their nominations, their conference can then select up to two nominees.
 
Thomas, a former swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, won the 500-yard freestyle event at the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday.
 
Her participation in college women's swimming has brought on a national debate, with some saying that she has an unfair advantage over other athletes.
 
Riley Gaines, a swimmer at the University of Kentucky who tied with Lia Thomas for fifth place at the NCAA swimming championships, said that a majority of females aren't okay with the trajectory of female sports.
 
"The majority of us female athletes, or females in general, really, are not okay with this, and they're not okay with the trajectory of this and how this is going and how it could end up in a few years," Gaines said on the "Unmuted with Marsha" podcast with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
 
She was referring to the NCAA's refusal to change the rules in order to protect competitiveness in female sports.
 
The University of Pennsylvania also nominated Iuliia Bryzgalova for the award, who plays tennis at the school.
 
Hey, speaking of playing dress-up, 
 
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-biden-admin-transgender-school-bathroom-athletes
 
Judge blocks Biden admin's transgender school bathroom rule for athletes
 
A federal judge has blocked a directive from President Joe Biden’s administration that allowed transgender workers and students to use school restrooms matching their gender identities. 
 
It also allowed transgender athletes to join sports teams corresponding with their chosen genders.
 
The directive was blocked by Judge Charles Atchley Jr. of the Eastern District of Tennessee, a Trump appointee, after a coalition of 20 Republican attorneys general sued last year, Reuters reported.
 
The plaintiffs argued the federal directive clashed with state laws and prevented states from enforcing their own laws that banned transgender school bathroom use.
 
Judge Atchley agreed, saying in his opinion the states "cannot continue regulating pursuant to their state laws while simultaneously complying with Defendants' guidance," Reuters reported.
 
The states also argued the Biden administration's Justice Department, the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — the defendants in the case — improperly justified the bathroom directive through the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County.
 
In the case, Clayton County fired county employee Gerald Bostock for "unbecoming" behavior after he participated in a gay recreational softball league. The Supreme Court ruled in 2020, that workplace sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should extend to sexual orientation and gender identity.
 
The high court said in