FBI joins investigation of Flint drinking water crisis
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.2517505
Can't see how this works, since SCOTUS has ruled govt has immunity from citizens' suits.
FBI expecting to find criminals?
Outrage: House Republicans Call Everyone BUT Gov. Snyder for Flint Poisoning Hearing
http://usuncut.com/news/house-republicans-call-everyone-except-rick-snyder-for-flint-congressional-hearing-on-lead-poisoning-crisis/
nameless underlings sacrificed, but Repug guv shielded
I really hope FBI finds criminal behavior, and sues in Federal court, not Repug WI court
FBI joins Flint drinking water investigation
Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, told the Free Press Monday that federal prosecutors are “working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, EPA's Office of Inspector General, and EPA's Criminal Investigation Division."
The office of U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Jan. 5 that it was assisting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a Flint drinking water investigation, but at that time, Balaya would not say whether the investigation was civil or criminal.
Balaya disclosed the involvement of the FBI and other agencies that investigate potential criminal wrongdoing late Monday when asked whether there were any concerns about the EPA leading the federal investigation, given the resignation of an EPA regional director over the Flint drinking water crisis and widespread public criticism of the EPA's conduct with respect to Flint.
The EPA's Office of Inspector General is an independent office within EPA that performs audits, evaluations, and investigations of EPA and its contractors to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse. The EPA's Criminal Investigation Division investigates potential criminal violations of federal environmental law.
Jill Washburn, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, confirmed Tuesday the FBI is involved in the investigation but would not say when that involvement began. "Our role is to determine whether or not there have been federal violations," Washburn said.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...tion/79683610/
Will FBI, etc be able to puncture the immunity, exemption from FOIA of Snyder and govt employees?
Why exactly is Gov arse and co. exempt from FOIA?
Repug state law.
Amid the Flint water crisis, journalists are calling for changes to Michigan’s FOIA law
When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder released emails related to the ongoing water crisis in the city of Flint earlier this month, he was under no obligation to do so. Michigan is one of only two states in the country (Massachusetts is the other) where the state’s Freedom of Information Act excludes the governor’s office from public records searches.
Missing from Gov. Snyder’s voluntary 274-page disclosure were emails from before 2014, when the governor-appointed emergency manager in charge of Flint made the decision to switch the city’s water source from Detroit public water to the Flint River, a poorly-managed transition which resulted in the lead poisoning of thousands of Flint residents. Emails from staff members as well as emails sent to and from the governor’s public email account were also left out.
In the absence of those emails, it is still unclear when and to what extent the Snyder administration was involved in and aware of the decision to switch water sources and the resultant public health emergency. Democrats have accused him of "cherry picking" the released emails.
The Flint water crisis is the latest and most striking example of how holes in the state’s sunshine laws have sharply reduced transparency between citizens and elected officials.
http://www.poynter.org/2016/flint-wa...e-laws/394453/
MI's people successfully voted to change the FOIA exemptions, but the Repugs passed a new bill, wonderfully screwing over MI voters, keeping the exemptions, and made it illegal to change the exemptions.
CONFIRMED: Republicans Who Blocked Flint Assistance Got Disaster Funds for Their States
http://usuncut.com/class-war/confirm...saster-relief/
Michigan GOP casts Obama admin as Flint villain
The Michigan Republican Party would like you to know that Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has been busy trying to heal the city of Flint while the malevolent Obama administration has only stood in the way.
That’s the message of an infographic the state party started putting out on social media on Thursday. The light blue water droplets on the left represent actions Snyder has taken since October, when his administration admitted its own mistakes created a crisis in Flint, a city whose 100,000 residents still can’t drink the water because of high lead levels. The dark blue droplets supposedly show unhelpful actions taken by the Obama administration, such as the refusal to declare a federal disaster area in the state (it declared an emergency instead).
As of this minute, the image is still available on the Michigan Republican Party’s Facebook page. If it’s taken down, it appears that the fine folks at Eclectablog, a Michigan-based site, have published the same image.
We know, of course, what state Republicans were thinking when they created this absurd infographic. GOP officials, recognizing the severity of this catastrophe and scandal, are desperate to avoid blame. Taking responsibility for Republicans’ mistakes is hard; reflexively lashing out at the White House, even if it doesn’t make any sense, is easy.
The problem, which even the most knee-jerk partisans will find hard to overlook, is a story that is not in dispute: Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, working with powers given to him by Michigan’s Republican-led state legislature, stripped local Flint officials of their power and decision-making authority. Snyder put an “emergency manager” in place – someone who answered to the governor, not the people of Flint – who shifted the city’s water supply, a move that carried tragic consequences.
Snyder administration officials told local residents not to worry about the water’s safety, even when the city had every reason to worry about the water’s safety.
These details were apparently omitted from the Michigan Republican Party’s infographic.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow
The MI Repug Ministry of Truth has spoken
Barry removes Snyder?
I'm assuming the law prevents a prez from removing a Gov.
Otherwise both parties would just remove govs left and right.
So will Snyder ever face any kind of consequences?
Why is no one in jail??
This is insane. Even in a 3rd world holes someone would be in jail. Wow USA has hit a new low
Beyond ridiculous. And yet you've got so many people defending the politicians who let this happen.
I expect DoJ/EPA will come down on the emergency managers, or somebody, for violating Federal drinking water policies, at least.
whether Snyder loses anything now (but his office next election) is less likely. If the Kock Bros run Snyder opposed then he'll probably get re-elected. Laws and accountability are only applied the bottom of the heap, not the top of the heap.
Beyond Flint: In The South, Another Water Crisis Has Been Unfolding For Years
http://www.npr.org/2016/02/06/465702...ding-for-years
https://twitter.com/mandatheresa/sta...rc=twsrc%5Etfw
Manslaughter charges possible in Flint water crisis, says top investigator
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/10/manslaughter-charges-possible-in-flint-water-crisis-says-top-investigator/
http://fox43.com/2016/02/04/central-...se-than-flint/A 2014 Pennsylvania Department of Health study, released in October, indicates 18 cities in Pennsylvania have higher levels of lead exposure than Flint, Michigan, which is undergoing a lead crisis in its water supply.
GOP Rhetoric Blames the Federal Government for Snyder’s Poisoning the People of Flint
The problem has nothing to do with Washington, D.C. “choking off” infrastructure spending. The problems lay in Snyder’s tax cuts
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/02/...der-flint.html
Flint is obviously, exclusively a Repug disaster, so the jackboots from the Repug Ministry of Truth have cranked up the LIES.
Flint’s poisoned water was among the most expensive in the country
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/flints-poisoned-water-was-the-most-expensive-in-the-country/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
Nestle is Pumping Millions of Gallons from the Great Lakes for Free While Flint Pays For Poison
Flint’s water service charges total 7 percent of the average household income, compared to the United Nations recommendation of 3 percent.
“They’ve been using that money improperly for years to fund the general operations of the city,” said Valdemar L. Washington, who’s been fighting the excessive increases in court since 2012. “The city’s sewer fund had a balance of $36 million in 2006 but was running a $23-million deficit by 2012.”
Meanwhile, less than two hundred miles away, multi-billion dollar corporation Nestle has been pumping millions of gallons out of Lake Michigan for free. In fact, they receive 13 million dollars in tax breaks to do so.
Despite making over 15 billion dollars in profits in 2014, Michigan government officials don’t charge Nestle per gallon of water, instead taking only a small permitting fee,
So not only do low income Flint residents technically pay more for Michigan water than Nestle, but now they’re also forced to buy bottled water from Nestle to stay alive. Flint residents are in the deplorable position of being forced to buy Michigan water from two different parties.
The Nestle bottling plant itself is a hated ins ution in Mecosta County. As if getting water for free wasn’t enough, the corporation greedily pumped at a rate of 400 gallons a minute, destroying the local environment. Grassroots organization Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) sued Nestle, who bitterly fought the local group for years.
“We wanted to protect our water, and the water was ours, not theirs,” said Peggy Case, President of MCWC. “This lasted for—like I said before, this lasted for eight years. And in that time, with lawyer fees and, you know, all the fees that come with going to court, we spent over $1 million.”
And how did a local activist organization scrounge up the money to fight a corporate giant?
“We scrambled for every penny we could get,” Case said. “We did 50/50 raffles among us, or anybody else we could get into it. We did yard sales. We wrote grants. We had bake sales.”
In a stunning victory, MCWC succeeded in forcing Nestle to reduce their withdrawals from 400 to 200 gallons a minute. But Nestle continues to receive free water and preferential treatment.
And Flint residents continue to be overcharged for water that is not only killing them, but bankrupting them as well.
http://usuncut.com/class-war/nestle-...ys-for-poison/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...ests/81220466/While a harsh national spotlight focuses on the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation has identified almost 2,000 additional water systems spanning all 50 states where testing has shown excessive levels of lead contamination over the past four years.
The water systems, which reported lead levels exceeding Environmental Protection Agency standards, collectively supply water to 6 million people. About 350 of those systems provide drinking water to schools or day cares. The USA TODAY NETWORK investigation also found at least 180 of the water systems failed to notify consumers about the high lead levels as federal rules require.
Many of the highest reported lead levels were found at schools and day cares. A water sample at a Maine elementary school was 42 times higher than the EPA limit of 15 parts per billion, while a Pennsylvania preschool was 14 times higher, records show. At an elementary school in Ithaca, N.Y., one sample tested this year at a stunning 5,000 ppb of lead, the EPA’s threshold for “hazardous waste.”
"2,000 additional water systems spanning all 50 states where testing has shown excessive levels of lead contamination over the past four years."
Repugs have, and will, say "We're broke, govt can't fix nothing, because govt is all bad all the time"
Panel pins blame for Flint crisis on Gov. Snyder’s administration
Republicans -- and some pundits -- want to blame the Flint crisis on the EPA and federal officials.
There's new evidence that proves they're wrong.
Last fall, when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) started to recognize the severity of the catastrophe in Flint, he appointed members to a task force to determine what went wrong. There were concerns that the panel might hesitate before pointing the finger at the same governor who tasked them with uncovering the truth.
It was all the more striking, then, when the panel issued a report yesterday that said it’s the Snyder administration that’s “fundamentally accountable” for the Flint crisis, because it was the governor’s environmental regulators and state-appointed emergency managers who created the mess. The state Associated Press reported:
The panel … said what happened in Flint is “a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice.” It also cited “intransigence and belligerence that has no place in government.”
“Flint water customers were needlessly and tragically exposed to toxic levels of lead and other hazards through the mismanagement of their drinking water supply,” investigators said.
Moreover, the 116-page report described as “inappropriate” a frequent claim of Snyder and his representatives that the Flint water crisis represents a failure of the local, state and federal governments. That suggests “that blame is attributable equally to all three levels of government,” the report said.
The do ent, available online in its entirety, concluded, “The state is fundamentally accountable for what happened in Flint.
And what about the effort on the part of Republicans and both-sides-are-always-to-blame pundits to hold the federal EPA responsible for Flint?
The report included criticisms of the EPA, which the task force said was too deferential towards the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. In effect, federal officials had the legal authority to intervene more aggressively in state affairs, but they were slow and hesitant to do so.
It creates an odd dynamic for Republicans hoping to exploit this angle for partisan purposes: they’re left to complain that the EPA acted too much the way Republicans expects the agency to act.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow
"states rights"!!Repugs say Feds should butt out of state operations, except when they shouldn't!
U.S. judge dismisses proposed class action over tainted Flint water
A federal judge in Michigan on Tuesday dismissed one of several proposed class actions by residents of Flint against Governor Rick Snyder and other state and local officials over contamination of the city's water supply.
The lawsuit's claims are addressed by federal regulations for safe drinking water, and the plaintiffs can seek relief under state law, U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara ruled.
O'Meara found the cons utional violations alleged in the lawsuit stem are covered by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exclusive enforcement authority.
Attorney Valdemar Washington, who represents the residents in the lawsuit, said they were considering filing an appeal of O'Meara's ruling and also possibly filing similar claims in Genesee County court, the Michigan Court of Claims, or both.
When the lawsuit was filed, the lawyers for the residents said they were seeking more than $150 million in damages in the 12-count complaint, including compensatory and punitive damages.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mi...2F+Top+News%29
So MI Repug austerity, racist poisoners get off?
47 De able Senate Republicans Vote To Deny Aid To Flint’s Lead Poisoned Children
Senate Republicans forced a vote on an amendment today that would have denied federal aid to the poisoned children of Flint, Michigan. What is even more deplorable is that 47 Senate Republicans voted not help lead poisoned children.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid blistered Republicans for their vote:
Three of the four Republican cosponsors of legislation to help the people of Flint voted to eliminate the funding source today.
It is a disturbing trend that Senate Republicans are regularly unable to fulfill their commitments.
The Senate cannot function if senators do not keep their word.
Republicans have proven once again that they are willing to turn their backs on the people of Flint.
Every time the Senate comes close to a bipartisan compromise to help children suffering from lead poisoning, Republicans find an excuse to back away.
Today, Republicans voted to remove a funding source for legislation to tackle Flint’s water crisis without offering a single dime to clean their poisoned water. More than 100,000 people – including 9,000 children under the age of six – have been poisoned in the city of Flint, and it is unconscionable that Republicans would attempt to deny them the support they desperately need.
Sadly, Republicans are happy to attack clean energy programs to please the Koch brothers, but they remain unwilling to lift a finger to help the people of Flint. I call on Republicans to end this unwarranted obstruction and protect the people of Flint and millions throughout the nation.
The 47 Senate Republicans who voted for this amendment displayed a basic contempt for the American people that is proof of why Republicans should be voted out of the majority in November. It doesn’t get any lower than voting against helping poisoned children.
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/04/...iticus+USA+%29
Will this, or anything Repugs do, hurt them in the elections?
no, screwing over knitters is exactly what the Repug racists base wants.
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