Flint

Flint & Detroit: The Failures Of Privatization And Non-Democracy

March 16, 2016 David Bacon, www.davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com Educate! Detroit, Flint, Privatization, Water

By David Bacon for The Reality Check - In spite of the growing sense of disbelief and horror surrounding the lead contamination of drinking water in the Michigan city of Flint, at least one thing is clear: that the catastrophic levels of pollution and destruction are a direct result of the extreme policies pursued by the Michigan's right-wing leadership. A very conservative group has controlled Michigan since the election of Governor Rick Snyder and a Republican majority in its legislature in 2011.

Flint Families File Class-Action Lawsuit

March 9, 2016 Timothy Cama, www.thehill.com Resist! Flint, Lawsuit, Michigan, Water Pollution

By Timothy Cama for The Hill - Seven families in Flint, Mich., filed a federal lawsuit seeking damages from the city and state over the lead-contaminated drinking water crisis. The families are seeking class-action status from the court to cover any children poisoned by lead that leached into water due to the 2014 switch in Flint’s water source, NBC News reported Monday. Flint resident Melissa Lightfoot told NBC her three children had no health problems before the water switch, and now all three have dangerously high lead levels in their blood.

Governor Snyder Could Have Called Flint Emergency ‘At Any Time’

March 1, 2016 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Educate! Flint, Michigan, State of Emergency

By Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder could have declared a state of emergency in Flint over its water contamination crisis months earlier than he did, according to new emails released Sunday that contradict the governor's defense of his delayed actions. Snyder, who declared a state of emergency in Flint and Genesee County on January 5—months after acknowledging there was lead in the region's public water supply—has repeatedly said he could not take action until local officials made a request, which Genesee County did on January 4.

Lost Opportunity: Jobs, Infrastructure & Water Poisoning

March 1, 2016 Dean Baker, www.truth-out.org Educate! Flint, Infrastructure, Jobs, Water, Water Pollution

By Dean Baker for Truthout - We all understand the concept of trade-offs. If we spend more of our paycheck on restaurants, then we will have less money for rent. If we spend more time watching television we will have less time to read or do sports. There will often be similar sorts of trade-offs in public policy decisions. If we spend more money on health care then we will have less money for education or child care. But trade-offs in public policy decisions don't always work that way.

8 Powerful Moments From Ryan Coogler’s #JusticeForFlint Event

February 29, 2016 Zeba Blay, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Flint, Lead Poisoning, Michigan, Water Pollution

By Zeba Blay for The Huffington Post - The most important star-studded event taking place Sunday night wasn't the Oscars -- it was director Ryan Coogler's #JusticeForFlint charity concert. The event, which was held at the Whiting Auditorium in Flint, Michigan, helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for residents affected by the Flint water crisis, and provided them with "a night of fun, relaxation, and entertainment." Below are just a few of the stand out moments from the show...

Who Decides: People Power Vs. Non-Elected Emergency Managers

February 27, 2016 Shea Howell, www.conversationsthatyouwillneverfinish.wordpress.com Resist! Flint, Lead Poisoning, Michigan, Water

By Shea Howell for The Boggs Blog - The toxic water in Flint has vividly brought to light the toxic consequences of right wing republican thinking that government should be run like a business. It has also shown us something about the poisoning of our own thinking. It took the poisoning of children to get the majority of people in America to recognize something profoundly ugly has been going on in Michigan. This is because our culture does not do well with complexity. We like our politicians loud, our heroes strong, our victims pure, and our villains beyond redemption.

Will Anyone Be Prosecuted In The Flint Water Crisis?

February 24, 2016 Staff, www.theconversation.com Resist! Flint, Michigan, Water Pollution

By Staff of The Conversation - The headlines were alarming. Traces of cancer-causing contaminants in New Orleans and Pittsburgh public drinking water supplies. Lead from water supply pipes in Boston tap water. In response, in 1974 Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which was designed to protect public drinking water supplies. Forty years later, Congress has passed multiple amendments to the SDWA, and regulatory agencies have adopted complex and lengthy regulations designed to prevent crises like the catastrophe now occurring in Flint, Michigan. But Flint’s water is still undrinkable and dangerous.

Harmful Economic Policy Poisoned Flint Before Lead Did

February 23, 2016 Lori Hansen Riegle, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Contamination, Economics, Flint, Policy, Water

By Lori Hansen Riegle for The Huffington Post - The national spotlight is on Flint, Michigan as it struggles with a contaminated public water system that has been poisoning its people over the past two years. This happened because a state emergency manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder ordered a change in the water supply to save money for the cash-strapped city. As the full scope of this avoidable human and economic crisis in Flint becomes clearer -- one must ask how such an iconic and historically vibrant American city -- could have been plunged into such extreme jeopardy?

Bridgeton, Flint Moms Join Forces Vs EPA

February 20, 2016 Staff, www.beyondnuclear.org Resist! EPA, Flint, Michigan

By Staff of Beyond Nuclear - As reported by Brian Kelly at CBS St. Louis, Just Moms STL from Bridgeton, Missouri and Water Warriors, including Water You Fight For in Flint, Michigan are standing in solidarity. They are demanding action from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, regarding, respectively: a leaking radioactive waste dump in the flood plain of the Missouri River, upstream of drinking water intakes for metro St. Louis, now at risk from an underground garbage dump fire burning less than 1,000 feet away

Flint Residents Charged Highest Water Rates Across Country

February 18, 2016 Bryce Covert, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Flint, Lead Poisoning, Michigan, Water

By Bryce Covert for Think Progress - Not only did Flint residents drink tap water contaminated with lead and other chemicals throughout 2015, but they were also paying the highest prices in the country to keep that poisoned water flowing through their pipes. A report released by Food & Water Watch on Tuesday confirmed what many residents had long suspected: that their water bills, averaging $140 a month, were the highest in the country. The group found that a Flint resident paid $864.32 a year for water in January 2015, about $500 more than what the typical family in the rest of the country paid for water from other public utilities and more than twice the rate paid in the state generally.

Native Americans Ask: What About Our Water?

February 14, 2016 Cecily Hilleary, www.voanews.com Educate! Coporatism, Flint, health, Indigenous Rights, Uranium, Water

By Cecily Hilleary for Voice of America. Celebrities and politicians have rallied around the city of Flint, Michigan, where thousands of children have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead in drinking water. But Native Americans say they have been facing an even more dangerous water contaminant for decades - uranium - and received far less attention The Cold War arms race triggered a boom in uranium mining in the U.S. Between the 1940s and 1980s, uranium mining operations were carried out under a 19th century mining law that did not require them to clean up after themselves. When demand for uranium waned in the 1980s, companies simply walked away, leaving open pits and tunnels - and enormous amounts of radioactive waste. Today more than 15,000 abandoned uranium mines dot the U.S. West.

Newsletter – Celebrate Black Power

February 13, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Activism, Black History, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Climate Justice, Environmental racism, Flint, Poverty, Racism, TPP, Water, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. This month is Black History Month, first celebrated as Black History Week in 1926 as a result of the efforts of African-American historian, Carter Godwin Woodson. Goodwin picked a week in February because both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas were born on February 12 and 14, even though he believed that people needed to be educated about the multitude of African Americans who have contributed to history, as change comes from the bottom up. In recent years black history is being made by multitudes of people. Under the umbrella of Black Lives Matter multiple organizations have been created across the country and tens of thousands of people have taken action. Black history is alive as history is being created in our times. Let's celebrate it together.

EPA’s Deliberate Poisoning Of Flint’s Children

February 12, 2016 Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! EPA, Flint, Lead Poisoning, Michigan

By Marsha Coleman-Adebayo for Black Agenda Report - Flint, Michigan, was declared a “sacrifice zone” because its majority Black and poor population’s “presence is no longer required and their lives are considered a hindrance to economic progress,” writes the author, who blew the whistle on EPA complicity in U.S. corporate poisoning of South African vanadium mine workers. The EPA is a serial criminal that has “utterly failed the Flint community and must be held accountable.” The first Congressional Hearing on the poisoning of predominately African-American and working class Flint, Michigan, residents took place Wednesday, February 3rd...

Flint Whistleblowers Who Exposed Their Poisoned Water

February 9, 2016 Larry Gabriel, www.yesmagazine.org Resist! Flint, Lead Poisoning, Water, Whistleblowers

By Larry Gabriel for Yes Magazine - The actions of a small group of dedicated activists in the Coalition for Clean Water led to the revelation that Flint, Michigan, residents were being poisoned by lead-contaminated water. The activists had been living with the yellow, brown, and red water flowing from their taps even as government officials denied it and the same poisoned water flowed from the taps at government buildings. The activists, whose different organizations came together to form the coalition, organized, strategized, did water research and testing to expose the government’s lies.

Flint’s Crisis Is About More Than Water

February 9, 2016 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Flint, Michigan, Water, Water Pollution

By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - What is in the mind of someone who knowingly poisons children and impairs their lives? Why did the politicians, regulators and bureaucrats who knew the water in Flint, Mich.,was toxic lie about the danger for months? What does it say about a society that is ruled by, and refuses to punish, those who willfully destroy the lives of children? The crisis in Flint is far more ominous than lead-contaminated water. It is symptomatic of the collapse of our democracy.

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