Flint Water Crisis Timeline

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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 23, 2016 3:19 pm

Flint Water Crisis Inquiry Finds State Ignored Warning Signs
By JULIE BOSMANMARCH 23, 2016


Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan listened as the Flint Water Advisory Task Force reported its findings on Wednesday. Credit Conor Ralph/The Flint Journal, via Associated Press
An independent panel investigating the Flint water crisis laid blame directly on Gov. Rick Snyder’s office, concluding that inept state employees in charge of supervising water quality and state-appointed emergency managers ignored mounting problems with the city water supply and stubbornly disregarded signs of widespread contamination.

The task force, which described the effects of the crisis as “long-lasting,” also concluded that environmental injustice had contributed to the government’s slow-footed response to complaints from Flint residents about the foul and discolored water that was making them sick.

“Flint residents, who are majority black or African-American and among the most impoverished of any metropolitan area in the United States, did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities,” the report concluded.

The task force was appointed by the governor, and its report, which was released in Flint on Wednesday, set off a discussion at a news conference about whether race was a factor in the cascade of government missteps that caused and then prolonged exposure to the contaminated water in Flint.

“Environmental injustice is not about overt acts of racism,” said Ken Sikkema, a panel member and former state senator, at the news conference. “It’s not about motivation. It’s not about deliberate attacks on a certain population group. It’s not about overt violations, attacks on civil rights. It’s about equal treatment.”

“Clearly what happened here is a case of environmental injustice,” he said.

The 116-page report said blame spread across every level of government, from local Flint officials to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, but concluded that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the state agency responsible for monitoring Flint’s water supply, had “primary responsibility for the water contamination in Flint.”

“They missed the boat completely,” said Chris Kolb, a task force member and the president of the Michigan Environmental Council. “They never backed off on those decisions no matter how many red flags they saw.”

As for staff members in the governor’s office, they were playing “whack-a-mole,” Mr. Kolb said.

“Every time an issue came up,” he said, “they asked about it, they were told it’s being taken care of, it’s solved, and then another issue would come up. At some point, though, you have to say: ‘Wait a second. My gut’s telling me something’s wrong.’ ”

Among its many findings, the task force found:

• A lack of coordination and communication among government agencies.

• The decision to switch the source of Flint’s water to the Flint River was made by a state-appointed emergency manager.

• The Flint water plant was not equipped properly.

• Crucial data related to the presence of lead in Flint’s tap water was not analyzed correctly.

DOCUMENT
Flint Water Advisory Task Force Report
Findings of the Flint Water Task Force, created by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to investigate lead contamination in the city’s water supply.


OPEN DOCUMENT
“The Flint water crisis is a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice,” the report said.

The panel met to discuss the findings more than 20 times, conducted some 60 interviews and made 44 recommendations, including that the governor’s office review the state’s controversial emergency manager law, and that the governor’s office improve its method of assessing information.

And it chastised government officials for inadequate funding of government services, urging that all levels of government establish “budgets for public health activities at federal, state, and local levels to ensure that highly skilled personnel and adequate resources are available.”

“The consequences of underfunding,” it said, “include insufficient and inefficient responses to public health concerns, which have been evident in the Flint water crisis.”

Mr. Snyder, who has been heavily criticized for the slow response to the crisis, accepted the report at the news conference in Flint. “There are a lot of excellent recommendations here,” Mr. Snyder said, adding that the state was already putting some of them in place.

The task force was created in October and had been expected to reveal its findings in February. In December, it released an initial report finding that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had failed to adequately respond to complaints from Flint residents that their water supply was tainted. The task force called the department’s actions “completely unacceptable.”

“Throughout 2015, as the public raised concerns and as independent studies and testing were conducted and brought to the attention of M.D.E.Q., the agency’s response was often one of aggressive dismissal, belittlement, and attempts to discredit these efforts and the individuals involved,” the report said.

Two resignations from that department quickly followed: Dan Wyant, the director of the Department of Environmental Quality since 2011, and Brad Wurfel, the communications director.

After the task force released its interim findings in December, Mr. Snyder said that they were only “initial steps.”

“We fully expect to take more actions following the recommendations of our task force,” he said. “When it comes to matters of health and quality of life, we’re committed to doing everything we can to protect the well-being of our citizens.”

The members of the task force, appointed by Mr. Snyder, are Dr. Matthew Davis, a pediatrician and professor of public policy; Mr. Kolb; Dr. Lawrence Reynolds, a pediatrician in Flint; Eric Rothstein, a water consultant; and Mr. Sikkema.

The drinking water in Flint became tainted in 2014 when the city, under control of a governor-appointed emergency manager, switched its water supply from Lake Huron water treated in Detroit to water from the Flint River. State officials failed to use anti-corrosives to treat the water, which caused lead to leach from pipes.

The governor’s office was aware of problems with the water but did not tell the public to stop drinking it until October 2015. Many Flint residents have accused the governor of failing to take their claims seriously. At a Congressional hearing in Washington last week, Mr. Snyder said he was overly reliant on “career bureaucrats” and “so-called experts” who repeatedly told him that the water was safe.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Apr 06, 2016 4:27 pm

Racketeering suit targets Gov. Snyder in Flint water crisis
Associated Press 12:42 p.m. EDT April 6, 2016

FLINT — Hundreds of residents of Flint, Michigan, filed a racketeering lawsuit Wednesday targeting Gov. Rick Snyder and other state and local officials over lead contamination of the city’s drinking water.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Flint, the suit is one of many arising from the decision to switch the Flint supply from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in April 2014 to cut costs. The move was supposed to be temporary, until Flint could join a new water authority that would pipe water from Lake Huron.


The lawsuit accuses Snyder and others of hatching a “wrongful scheme” to reduce Flint’s indebtedness by stopping the impoverished city from buying treated Lake Huron water from Detroit, instead of “invoking time tested, well-honed federal bankruptcy protections for restructuring the debts of municipalities.”

Snyder spokesman Ari Adler declined comment on the suit.

State officials have acknowledged erroneously advising Flint officials not to treat the river water with anti-corrosive chemicals, and that this enabled lead to leach from aging pipes and reach some homes, businesses and schools. Testing last fall showed that levels of lead in the blood of some children in the city rose after the water systems were switched.

Lead is a potent neurotoxin that can damage child brain development and cause behavioral problems, and also can sicken adults.

Flint switched back to the Detroit system last October.

Along with Snyder, the suit names as defendants the state of Michigan; the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services; and a number of state officials, along with emergency managers whom Snyder appointed to oversee the city. Also named are the city of Flint, two of its utility officials and three consulting companies that advised them.

Through their actions, “unthinkable harm has been inflicted on the residents of Flint,” the suit said.

It was filed by law firms in Southfield and New York, which said in a news release that they represented more than 400 people.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:31 pm

Legionnaires’ death toll in Flint rises by 2 to 12
Chad Livengood, Detroit News Lansing Bureau 1:18 p.m. EDT April 11, 2016
031916-tm-Flint556Buy Photo
(Photo: Todd McInturf / The Detroit News)
Lansing — The state of Michigan increased the death toll from Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area by two on Monday, two days before Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon is set to testify before Congress.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the number of deaths from the respiratory disease is now 12 out of 91 cases. The updated report included three new cases of Legionnaires’ disease, with two of them resulting in deaths.

The two additional Legionnaires’ disease deaths occurred between June and November of last year, after a state health department official declared the outbreak “over” in a report that was not made public until February.

Dr. Eden Wells, the state’s chief medical executive, told The Detroit News last month that health officials believed they had found the final case of the outbreak, when the official death count was increased from nine to 10 after a new case was linked to a Flint-area hospital.

But the health department’s March 17 report prompted a Genesee County hospital to review its records, Wells said. The hospital found two cases it thought were reported to the state’s communicable disease database were never received because of a computer glitch, she said.

“It turned out that a hospital looked back and said, ‘Wait a minute, we actually had two you didn’t have,’ ” Wells said Monday.

A third Legionnaires’ case was discovered after health officials found an individual with the communicable disease from a different county who also was previously hospitalized in Genesee County, Wells said.

“When there’s an outbreak, it’s not uncommon to find, even years later, data that can link back to an outbreak,” she told The News.

All of the case and death increases occurred in the May-October 2015 period, according to the health department. The number of cases now stands at 46 Legionnaires’ cases and seven deaths, up from 43 cases and five deaths, according to an April 8 report.

The number of cases and deaths in the June 2014-March 2015 period remains unchanged at 45 cases and five deaths.

The state’s investigation has identified a common source of exposure to the Legionella bacteria for 50 individuals of the 91 total confirmed cases. It is a hospital in Flint that is served by Flint’s municipal water system, which switched back to Detroit’s Lake Huron water in October.

Although the state won’t identify the hospital, The Detroit News confirmed earlier that it is McLaren Regional Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said in January that McLaren took aggressive action and testing that showed the water is now “well within safety and quality standards.”

The hospital hired a Legionnaires’ consultant who argued the city’s lead-contaminated water likely led to the outbreak of pneumonia cases.

“The water quality issues, from a microbiological point of view, certainly were a factor in the increase in Legionnaires’ disease in Genesee County,” Janet Stout, a research associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, first told The Detroit News.

Legionnaires’ disease is caused in warmer months by a bacteria in warm fresh water that leads to pneumonia and sometimes death. The bacteria can be found in large plumbing systems, hot tubs, air-conditioning units and fountains.

The state health department has said it can’t conclude the Flint outbreak is related to the switch to river water in April 2014 that eventually led to lead-contaminated drinking water.

DHHS has partnered with Wayne State University, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Genesee County Health Department on increased surveillance for Legionnaires’ disease, Wells said.

Wells said federal, state and local health officials are “on high alert” and “jumping on any suspect cases” in that may arise in Genesee County this spring and summer.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: World Bank on drugs

Postby Sounder » Tue Apr 12, 2016 8:43 pm

World Bank May Be Spreading The Scourge That Fed Flint Water Crisis

WASHINGTON — Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) is calling out the World Bank’s investment in global water resources, alleging conflicts of interest similar to those that removed Flint, Michigan, from managing its own water.

Moore, ranking member on the House Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee, on Tuesday condemned the World Bank’s funding and promotion of water privatization through “public private partnerships” arranged by its investment arm, the International Finance Corp., or IFC.

“I am increasingly uneasy with water resource privatization in developing countries and do not believe that the current ring-¬fencing policies separating the investment and advising functions of the IFC are adequate,” Moore wrote in a letter to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. Moore’s committee has jurisdiction over the World Bank.

The IFC’s purpose is to advise and invest with private companies to advance work in developing countries. But Moore, backed by watchdog group Corporate Accountability International, argued the World Bank has failed to adequately monitor the IFC’s overlapping roles of advising and investing.
Moore pointed to the IFC’s involvement in a water privatization project in Manila, Philippines, in the early 2000s, in which the bank advised and then designed the plan to help split the city’s water system into two corporations. Later, IFC bought a multi-million dollar equity stake in one of the corporations — Manila Water Co. According to documents, Manila Water then raised rates by 845 percent.

A 2012 report from Corporate Accountability International found that Manila Water has done little, if anything, to expand water supplies for communities lacking connections to infrastructure.

The IFC considers Manila a flagship model. The bank says it tracks conflicts between the IFC’s advisory and investment departments.
“The World Bank Group takes real or perceived conflicts of interests very seriously and has strict procedures in place to manage these risks appropriately,” IFC spokesman Frederick Jones said. “In the case of Manila Water, the risk of perceived conflicts of interest was examined at each stage of the Manila Water investment approval. Under the lead of IFC’s Conflicts of Interest Office, IFC ensured the use of an investment team that was comprised of completely different staff from those on the transaction advisory team.”

Jones added that helping government identify the best solutions to expanding access to clean water and sanitation services is a World Bank “priority.”

Moore, however, doesn’t buy it. As part owner of Manila Water, IFC is “aligned” with the utility’s “aggressive pursuit” of higher rates, she wrote.
Moore, who recently traveled to Flint to investigate the water crisis, said a profit-over-safety mentality is too common. The “pain and trauma” she saw in Flint is a “tragedy [that] could too easily happen in Milwaukee,” which she represents. Flint’s water was poisoned with lead after an emergency manager switched the water supply, causing pipes to corrode.

In Moore’s home state, the issue of water privatization was fiercely debated earlier this year. Legislation that would have made it easier to sell or lease public water and sewer utilities to private companies passed the state assembly, but was scrapped by the Wisconsin Senate amid opposition.
The ongoing problems in Flint and other U.S. cities, Moore said in an emailed statement, “begs of us in positions of influence to take a broader look at the world around us to help identify similar problems.”

“Yes, we’ve just now started shedding light on this local and national issue in the United States, but there are global implications to think about as well,” Moore added, pointing to the World Bank’s investments in private water companies. “It has become clear that there are those in positions of great power who are all too willing to prioritize profits over public safety.”

Moore’s letter called on the World Bank and IFC to cease promoting and investing in private water companies until an outside investigation and congressional hearings.

“The World Bank is stacking the deck, dealing the cards and placing all the bets, putting profits above human need,” said Shayda Naficy, of Corporate Accountability International. “For years it has ignored the concerns of those most affected by this blind pursuit, but with Congress asking questions, it can no longer pursue this path with impunity.”
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Apr 20, 2016 9:58 am

Criminal Charges to Be Announced Wednesday in Connection to Flint Water Contamination

By Elliot Hannon

Image

A Flint resident holds a baby bottle full of contaminated water on Capitol Hill Feb. 3, 2016 in Washington, DC.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Criminal charges will be announced Wednesday in connection to the Flint Water Investigation, according to local media outlets. The state Attorney General’s office, which launched the probe into the city’s contaminated water, said in a press release tomorrow’s announcement would be “significant.” Local ABC-affiliate WZYZ is reporting that three people will face criminal charges, including felony charges.

Attorney General Bill Schuette appointed a special prosecutor to handle the inquiry into the contamination of Flint’s drinking water because the AG’s office is representing the state in any potential criminal and civil cases. Special prosecutor Todd Flood announced in early February that the possibility of involuntary manslaughter charges being filed against individuals was not “far-fetched.” There still could also be civil charges as a result of the deadly water contamination.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Grizzly » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:14 pm

Who will be charged, though low level flunckies, or real perps. I haven't kept up with it enough to suss out the real story. Gotta pick your battles, right!? I wish Michael Moore was on to this, like he should be...
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Grizzly » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:15 pm

Grizzly » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:14 pm wrote:Who will be charged though, low level flunckies, or real perps. I haven't kept up with it enough to suss out the real story. Gotta pick your battles, right!? I wish Michael Moore was on to this, like he should be...
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:21 pm

Watch live from Flint, Michigan, starting at 1pm:

http://www.alternet.org/water/watch-...-charged-today



More charges are expected during the ongoing investigation.


low level flunckies must be forced to sing first
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby backtoiam » Wed Apr 20, 2016 1:08 pm

:lol2:

Snyder to drink filtered Flint water for month
Jacob Carah, Special to The Detroit News 11:25 p.m. EDT April 18, 2016
cheryl

(Photo: Office of Gov. Rick Snyder)
5739 CONNECTTWEETLINKEDIN 154 COMMENTEMAILMORE

Flint — Bottoms up for Gov. Rick Snyder.

The governor announced Monday for the next 30 days, he’ll drink filtered tap water drawn from the city.

“One of the things I thought would be helpful, because people asked me about drinking the water, that’s why I said I want to go out and drink filtered Flint water,” Snyder said.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/m ... /83202064/
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Apr 20, 2016 2:02 pm

Schuette on Flint: More charges coming
Chad Livengood, Jim Lynch and Jacob Carah, The Detroit News 1:54 p.m. EDT April 20, 2016

Flint — Two state environmental officials and a Flint water administrator are accused of manipulating water testing results, tampering with evidence and misleading federal and county officials about the safety of Flint’s lead-tainted drinking water in criminal charges filed Wednesday.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality District Engineer Michael Prysby faces six charges. Stephen Busch, DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water’s Lansing and Jackson district supervisor, faces a total of five charges. And Michael Glasgow, Flint’s utilities administrator, is facing two charges.

The charges, a mixture of felonies and misdemeanors, stem from an investigation led by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office into how Flint’s water system became tainted by toxic lead, setting a public health emergency that has roiled Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration.

“I’ve stated this was the beginning of the road back — the road back to building and restoring trust and confidence of Flint families in their government...,” Schuette said during an afternoon press conference. “In Michigan, as I’ve made it abundantly clear that our system of justice applies to everybody. It’s not rigged. No one is above the law.”

On several occasions during a press conference Wednesday, Schuette sidestepped questions about potential charges against Snyder.

Investigator Andrew Arena echoed the idea that more charges against additional suspects are in the future.

“...This is the biggest case in the history of the State of Michigan — I think history will bear me out when we’re done...,” he said. “As an investigator, this is why you suit up.”

Busch and Prysby are linked to Flint’s failure to treat river water with corrosion controls — designed to prevent lead contamination — between April 2014 and October 2015.


Schuette’s charges filed Wednesday against Busch and Prysby accuse the career municipal water regulators of “willfully and knowingly misleading” federal regulators at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Genesee County Health Department about the treatment of Flint’s river water.

For Prysby, the charges against him include: two counts of misconduct in office; one count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence; tampering with evidence; and separate violations of water treatment and monitoring laws.

Busch faces one charge of misconduct in office, one charge of conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence and separate violations of water treatment and monitoring under the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act he was charged with enforcing.

Glasgow is charged with one count of tampering with evidence for changing lead water testing results and one count of willful neglect of duty as a public servant.

The evidence tampering charges against Prysby and Busch are related to unlawfully altering three lead water test reports between February and August 2015, according to a charging document obtained by The Detroit News.

Busch and Prysby also are accused of wrongly not requiring Flint to treat its corrosive river water with corrosion-controlling chemicals that could have prevented lead from leaching from pipes.


The misconduct in office charges are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and or fines of $10,000. The evidence-tampering felonies are felonies punishable by up to four years in prison and or $10,000 fines.

The indictments are “the first of more to come,” according to one source familiar with the ongoing investigation.

Busch’s actions have been under state review for several months now. He spent five days on unpaid leave in late January, the maximum allowable under civil service rules. The DEQ supervisor earns $93,876 a year and has been on paid leave since Feb. 1, according to the State Budget Office.

Emails and internal communications released through public records requests paint Busch as a central figure in Flint’s water crisis. Snyder has said top managers in the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance lacked “common sense” in failing to require corrosion controls when the city began using the Flint River as its source of drinking water.

A key juncture in the Flint crisis came early in 2015, when EPA officials attempted to discern if Flint was using corrosion controls to prevent lead from leaching into the river water. EPA officials have said they were misled by the DEQ about the situation, and both Busch and Prysby were at the heart of that exchange.

But state emails also show Busch recognized problems could arise from Flint using the river as its water source. On March 26, 2013, he wrote that regular use of the river could “pose an increased microbial risk to public health” and “pose an increased risk of disinfections by-product (carcinogen) exposure to public health.”

Last month, while appearing before state investigators, Glasgow laid the blame for Flint’s lack of corrosion controls at Prysby’s feet. The DEQ official, he said, had told him the city did not need to use corrosion controls when Flint’s treatment plant came on line.

Glasgow is accused of tampering with evidence related to Flint’s lead and copper testing reports. The willful neglect of duty charge against Glasgow is a one-year misdemeanor for failing to perform his duties as a licensed municipal water treatment operator.

In a 2015 email to another city officials, Glasgow wrote: “We originally had this chemical in the design, but the DEQ did not mandate it from the start,” Glasgow wrote in the email. “(They) informed us to wait and see the results of our lead and copper sampling to determine if it was necessary.”

Glasgow was involved with overseeing the city’s water sampling program under the guidelines of the federal Lead and Copper Rule. At a time when the city was drawing its water from the Flint River and failing to treat it to prevent corrosion, sampling was being conducted at homes that did not have lead service lines — part of the testing criteria.

Instead, samples were taken from few homes with lead lines — artificially lowering the overall lead detected around the city. It allowed Flint to report compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule when it did not federal standards.

Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech researcher whose sampling helped identify the presence of high lead levels in Flint’s water, laid out his concerns about the homes the city was choosing to sample in an Oct. 15 email to top Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials.

In it, he challenged not only the lack of homes tested with lead service lines, but the decision to throw out one sampling result, from the home of resident Lee-Anne Walters with extraordinarily high lead results.

“For your information, on the basis of records from the city, Lee-Anne’s home is the only home in the 2015 sampling pool that is proven to have a lead pipe,” Edwards wrote. “I have compared the sample sites that the city used to the database that Flint has put together, and of 11 samples in the database that the city claims had a lead pipe, zero actually had a lead pipe…

“Your employees…threw out the only Flint (Lead and Copper Rule) samples know to be legitimate in the 2015 sampling round.”

In 2015, Glasgow seemingly admitted to shortcomings in the way samples were collected when confronted by an interviewer with ACLU-Michigan. When asked how testers could be sure they were getting samples from homes with lead lines, he essentially said there was no way to be sure.

“We throw bottles out everywhere just to collect as many as we can to try to hit our numbers… We just turn in every result that we get in,” he said.

Schuette’s probe has been looking into state and local government officials to determine whether state laws were violated. In launching the investigation in January, Schuette said the crisis in Flint was “a human tragedy in which families are struggling with even the most basic parts of daily life.” He vowed to “help restore some of the trust in our government while helping families move forward.”

Schuette assembled what he called a “top-shelf” team earlier this year for the probe, led by Todd Flood, a former Wayne County assistant prosecutor, and Arena, who ran several major investigations as head of the Detroit FBI Office until his retirement in 2012. Arena came out of retirement, he said, because the Flint water investigation is “the biggest case in the history of the state.”

In late March, Flood began deposing several unnamed city employees who were subpoenaed to appear at an office in Detroit, Flint City Attorney Stacy Erwin Oakes previously said.

Oakes did not return a message Tuesday night seeking comment.

Flood said in February the inquiry could lead to a variety of criminal charges or civil actions.

The team includes more than 20 attorneys and investigators, including former state and Detroit police officers.

Flood has said he also could pursue restitution for Flint residents affected by the water contamination crisis, suggesting he could target private companies or governments involved in the man-made disaster.

Critics have questioned the objectivity of the investigation, noting that Flood has made political contributions to both Schuette and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, a fact he has said will not affect his judgment in the case. Flood also donated to former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Because he is involved in the probe, Schuette is not part of the team defending Snyder in a federal class-action lawsuit.

The contamination crisis has led to the resignation of the state Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant and department spokesman Brad Wurfel. Gov. Rick Snyder dismissed Liane Shekter Smith, former head of the DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance. In response to a spike in Legionnaires’ cases that coincided with the water crisis — 91 cases in 17 months beginning in June 2014, including 12 deaths — Snyder called for an investigation into the health department.

Flint switched off Detroit’s Lake Huron water supply in April 2014 and began using the Flint River as an interim source while a new regional pipeline was built. Residents quickly began complaining about the water’s color and odor, and independent experts eventually discovered elevated lead levels in the water and blood of children.

The state, which initially downplayed concerns, confirmed the lead findings in October and began taking steps to address the crisis. Wyant resigned in late December amid criticism over his agency’s failure to ensure proper corrosion controls were added to Flint River water, which had leached lead from aging underground pipes.

In January, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit open its own investigation into the Flint water crisis along with the EPA. Federal officials declined to say whether the case is a civil or criminal investigation.

Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, said Wednesday after state charges were announced: “Federal law enforcement agencies have been working on a parallel investigation cooperatively with the state but independently. We will continue to explore any violations of federal law.”
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:34 am

Flint: first day of charges is just the opening move

By Mark Sumner
Wednesday Apr 20, 2016 · 5:39 PM CDT
Image
Rick Snyder and Flint water.

On Wednesday, the Michigan Attorney General, Republican Bill Schuette, filed charges against three low-level workers.

Mike Glasgow is the Flint water quality supervisor, while Mike Prysby is an engineer for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Steve Busch was the former DEQ district supervisor.

Both Busch and Prysby were suspended from the DEQ in January.
To have officials at this level charged is not the way this usually works.

"These types of charges — charging environmental regulatory officials with falsification and evidence tampering — are extremely unusual," said Jane F. Barrett, a law professor at the University of Maryland's Carey School of Law who has practiced environmental law for 40 years. "I can't think of another case."
Though Rick Snyder seems extremely satisfied with the results.


After a day of information leaks and press conferences, it seems very unlikely that this is the end. In fact…


Schuette, who has his eye on the race to replace Republican Governor Rick Snyder, salted his press conferences with statements indicating that this was step one. Already word is circulating that Mike Glasgow is reporting that he was ordered to change the water quality reports at Flint by “a state official,” which is exactly the reason bottom-level workers like Glasgow are rarely charged—someone else gave the orders. The charges against Glasgow, a “misconduct” charge, are expressly for people who have done something wrong that doesn’t benefit them. But modifying those reports did benefit someone.

It benefited appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley, who made the change from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Karegnondi Water Authority which introduced corrosive, untreated water into Flint’s aging lead pipes. It also benefited Governor Rick Snyder, who was out to assert authority over both Flint and Detroit.

The number of people who think this is confined to the three workers charged today is exactly zero. As additional charges are filed, you may see Glasgow, Busch, and Prysby back on the bricks very soon.

Last year, Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans dismissed a misconduct-in-office charge against Steven Collins, a county lawyer who was part of a failed jail project, ruling that he was an employee, not a public officer.
The charges filed against the three are usually reserved for elected officials, and it seems clear already that elected officials put them up to changing the numbers.

It seems clear that Snyder is ready to blame the guys on the front line, throw a little lead-tainted dirt on the whole thing, and move on. Only Schuette may find his ambitions are helped more by digging than joining in the cover-up.

Now we see how long it takes for the second move
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby backtoiam » Sun Apr 24, 2016 1:09 pm

Woman Leading Flint Water Crisis Lawsuit Murdered Inside Home
© Flickr/ Tony Webster
US
01:41 23.04.2016(updated 01:42 23.04.2016) Get short URL
86701415
One of the first women to file a lawsuit relating to the ongoing water crisis in Flint was murdered inside her home on Tuesday.

FILE - Vehicles drive through downtown Flint, Mich., on Jan. 21, 2016. From its founding, Flint's fortunes essentially were entwined with a single industry. First it was the fur trade, which shifted to lumber, which gave way to the horse carriages that led to it being called Vehicle City. It was a fitting moniker for its next, most important role, as a powerhouse of auto manufacturing and the original home of General Motors.
© AP Photo/ Paul Sancya
‘Inside Job’: Flint City Hall Break-In at Height of Poisoned Water Crisis Raises Serious Suspicions
Sasha Avonna Bell was shot to death inside her home, along with another woman, Sacorya Renee Reed. An unharmed one-year-old child was also found inside the home, but police have not confirmed who the parents are.

Bell had filed a lawsuit against six companies involved with the water scandal, as well as three individual government, or former government, employees, claiming that her child had been poisoned by lead in the contaminated water in her home.

"Sasha was a lovely young woman who cared deeply for her family, and especially for her young child," her attorney Corey M. Stern told MLive. "Her tragic and senseless death has created a void in the lives of so many people that loved her. Hopefully, her child will be lifted up by the love and support from everyone who cared deeply for Sasha."

While Bell’s case was just one of 64 lawsuits filed on behalf of 144 children, her lawsuit being one of the first played an important role in determining the futures of other subsequent cases.

The Flint police have someone in custody for the murders, but have not announced charges or the motive.

Her lawsuit will continue despite her passing, and a representative will be appointed for her child.

http://sputniknews.com/us/20160423/1038 ... urder.html



Flint water treatment plant foreman was found dead days before three of his colleagues were charged over the city's contaminated water crisis

The death of a Water Treatment Plant foreman, who was found dead at his home on April 16 by a friend who went to visit him, comes amid charges against three men involved in the city's water crisis.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced the sudden death of foreman, Matthew McFarland on Thursday.

A friend discovered the 43-year-old's body when he went to visit him at his Otter Lake home last Saturday, according to MLive.

His death comes as Flint's water plant deals with the attorney general's announcement of three men facing criminal charges in connection with the city's water crisis.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... risis.html
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Luther Blissett » Mon Apr 25, 2016 4:20 pm

Yo real justice for Sasha Bell now, which should be read as a weighted statement. She was only 19 and that child found in the house was almost definitely hers, the one who had been poisoned with lead from the drinking water. Fuck these strategy-of-tension-style criminal bastards.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:13 am

State police using online surveillance to track talk on Flint water crisis


Rachel Woolf | rwoolf@mlive.com
Print Email Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com By Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com

on April 25, 2016 at 7:00 AM, updated April 25, 2016 at 10:05 AMs


FLINT, MI – State police officials are using online surveillance to monitor social media comments made about the Flint water crisis, according to emails released by Gov. Rick Snyder's office.

The emails show that officials attempted on at least one occasion to initiate criminal proceedings against a Copper City man over allegedly threatening comments he made on Facebook about the government's handling of the crisis.

"It's time for civil unrest. Burn down the Governor mansion, elimionate (sic) the capitol where the legislators RE-INSTATED the emergency dictator law after the PEOPLE voted it down, and tell the Mich (sic) State Police if they use military force, we will return with same," according to a state police email about the Facebook post.

A state police official declined comment on any possible investigations stemming from the online surveillance, but said the information they collect is shared with other state agencies that could be affected.

"In the interest of protecting our residents, the MSP monitors any incidents that have the potential to result in criminal activity and/or violence," Michigan State Police spokesperson Shanon Banner wrote in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal.

"Threats against individuals and organizations are shared with the individual/organization so they have situational awareness," Banner wrote

In January, a State Police senior intelligence analyst sent an email to the agency's intelligence commander and an Upper Peninsula post commander that the Copper City man made a potentially threatening statement following a Detroit Free Press article regarding Flint's water woes.

In the email, the analyst said she was assigned to the MSP Intelligence Operations Center and that she was monitoring Facebook and Twitter with regard to the Flint water crisis.
The analyst asked that the U.P. post commander attempt to determine the author's whereabouts and speak with him regarding the Facebook post.

State records show the man who allegedly wrote the Facebook post was on probation following his involvement in an armed standoff with police in April 2015.

Records show some state workers got extra pay for Flint water crisis

State officials gave extra pay to more than 30 state workers assigned to special duty on the Flint water crisis, according to tens of thousands of pages of emails and documents released by the office of Gov. Rick Snyder.

The man was sentenced to two years of probation in September 2015 after pleading no contest to attempted felonious assault following a 12-hour standoff with law enforcement, according to The Daily Mining Gazette. Six other counts, including threats of terrorism, were dismissed in that case.

The charges in that case were filed after police said he made threats against multiple government employees, including a public works employee attempting to disconnect his water over a delinquent bill and a Copper City billing clerk.

Eventually, Flint water claims from the state analyst were forwarded to a Michigan Department of Corrections staffer, which oversees the state's parole and probation programs.

MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz said a case probation agent looked into the information and sought a probation violation Jan. 22 but a Houghton Circuit Judge Charles Goodman decided against proceeding with the violation.

Goodman could not be reached for comment.

The probationer's attorney, David Gemignani, declined to comment on the case..

Snyder spokesman Ari Adler declined to comment on what information is shared with his office by the State Police and what is done with it, stating the governor's office doesn't "comment on any work or actions by the State Police regarding security issues."

The governor and his office have received extensive criticism for their handling of the city's water crisis.

Snyder has been the recipient of public protests outside of his Ann Arbor home and high-profile tongue lashings from Democratic representatives during his March testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Protesters: 'Arrest Rick Snyder! Make him drink the water!'
Dozens of protesters demonstrated once again Wednesday night outside the embattled governor's personal condo in downtown Ann Arbor.

The information was released as part of an April 15 release of more than 127,000 pages of state departmental emails related to the Flint water crisis. The dump included emails from the departments of Corrections, Natural Resources, Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and the Michigan Civil Service Commission.

It was the fourth set of emails released by Snyder's office.

It is unknown how much the state is spending to monitor social media posts about Flint water but the April 15 email release revealed that state officials gave extra pay to more than 30 state workers assigned to special duty on the Flint water crisis.
While the records don't usually indicate how much the overtime and extra pay awards amount to in total, in some cases, the water emergency resulted in officials receiving thousands of dollars of extra pay.

In one case, George Krisztian, who was assigned to act as a DEQ point of contact on the Flint crisis, received 5 percent extra pay, increasing his annual salary to $104,568 late last year.

Sheryl Thompson, deputy director of MDHHS field operations administration, also received a 5 percent bonus earlier this year for leading a task force to coordinate departmental response to the water crisis, bumping her annual pay to $142,014, the released documents show.

Investigators from Attorney General Bill Schuette's office, which filed criminal charges against two Michigan Department of Environmental Quality staffers and a city water plant employee, say they have combed through roughly 2.5 million pages of emails as part of their investigation.

More Flint water crisis charges guaranteed, attorney general says
Attorney General Bill Schuette guaranteed more charges are on the way as the investigation into the Flint water crisis continues.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:42 am

Published on
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
byCommon Dreams
Michigan Official Tried to Manipulate Lead Tests—Eight Years Ago
In 2008, a Michigan environmental official told lead test technicians to "bump out" sky-high lead results by collecting more clean water samples
byNika Knight, staff writer

"This culture of corruption and unethical, uncaring behavior predated Flint by at least [eight] years," said lead expert Marc Edwards. (Photo: Joyce Zhu/FlintWaterStudy.org)
A newly resurfaced email demonstrates that in 2008 an official from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) tried to game lead tests by suggesting that technicians collect extra water samples to make the average lead count for a community appear artificially low.

The email was sent in response to a test result that showed one home's lead levels were ten times the federal action level of 15 parts per billion, and urged the lead test technician to take an additional set of water samples to "bump out" the high result so that the MDEQ wouldn't be required to notify the community of the high levels of lead in its water.

"Otherwise we're back to water quality parameters and lead public notice," complained Adam Rosenthal of the MDEQ's Drinking Water office in the email.

"Oh my gosh, I’ve never heard [it] more black and white," said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor and lead expert who helped uncover the crisis, to the Guardian. "In the Flint emails, if you recall, it was a little bit implied … this is like telling the strategy, which is: 'you failed, but if you go out and get a whole bunch more samples that are low, then you can game it lower.'"

An MDEQ official urges a technician to "bump out" high lead test results. (Photo: Michigan.gov)
An MDEQ official urges a technician to "bump out" high lead test results. (Photo: Michigan.gov)

"[This email] just shows that this culture of corruption and unethical, uncaring behavior predated Flint by at least [eight] years," as Edwards told the Guardian.

The revelation comes less than a week after criminal charges were filed against three MDEQ employees for their role in Flint's water crisis. Rosenthal was not one of those officials charged.

Two MDEQ officials, Mike Prysby and Stephen Busch, were copied on Rosenthal's 2008 email and last week both were charged with "misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, a treatment violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act and a monitoring violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act" in relation to the Flint water crisis, as MLive reported.

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The 2008 lead tests were taken at the Chateaux Du Lac Condominiums, a homeowners assocation in Fenton, Michigan, that operates on a private water system and has struggled periodically with high lead levels. The association's water system "has exceeded federal lead action levels, set to trigger remediation efforts such as public education campaigns or expensive corrosion control, eight times over the past 20 years," the Guardian writes.

"In early September 2008, a water laboratory technician collected samples from five of the nearly 45 homes in the association, the minimally required amount," the newspaper reports.

"The technician submitted the samples to the Michigan department of environmental quality for review. Of the five samples, one home registered a lead level of 115 parts per billion (ppb), nearly 10 times higher than the federal action level of 15ppb—and thereby put the Chateaux's water system out of compliance," the Guardian points out. "If at least 90% of homes tested for lead register a level at or below 15ppb, the system is deemed in compliance with federal regulation."

In his email, Rosenthal recommended the technician collect "a minimum of 5 more samples"—if those five extra samples measured below the federal action level, the system would have been in compliance and the government would not have been required to notify homeowners of the high lead test result.

"Chateaux still had to publish a public lead notice in 2008," the Guardian notes, "and documentation shows that only five tests were performed, including the high test discussed in the email exchange."

And so it appears the technician was not swayed by Rosenthal's urging to manipulate lead test results in 2008, but critics charge that the habit of ignoring the public good in favor of bureaucratic convenience continued among Michigan government officials and directly contributed to the Flint disaster.

It was also announced on Wednesday that President Obama will be visiting Flint on May 4 to speak directly with residents about the crisis and to receive an in-person briefing about the federal government's efforts to help.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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