In Flint, Michigan, all charges were dropped against the state officials who made the disastrous decision to change thesource of the city’s water supply, to save money.
The Michigan solicitor general, Fadwa Hammoud, who took control of the investigation in January after the election of a new attorney general, said “all available evidence was not pursued” by the previous team of prosecutors.
“This week, we completed the transfer into our possession millions of documents and hundreds of new electronic devices, significantly expanding the scope of our investigation,” Hammoud and the Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.
“Our team’s efforts have produced the most comprehensive body of evidence to date related to the Flint water crisis. We are now in the best possible position to find the answers the citizens of Flint deserve and hold all responsible parties accountable,” they said.
They said it’s possible that Lyon and others could be charged again.
Flint was one of the worst manmade environmental disasters in US history. While waiting for a new pipeline to bring water from lake Huron, the majority-black city of 100,000 pulled water from the Flint River without treating it to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes. Lead infected the distribution system in Flint, where 41% of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is NOT right. Snyder should be IN JAIL.
Racism and classism ….
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Can anyone clarify this?
It appears that the reason for dropping charges is NOT because those people are not being pursued, but because a new Attorney General is interested in making sure all the people involved are charged with crimes and it turned out that some of the incriminating documents had been hidden.
I would hate to see some low level fall guy get prosecuted while the high level guys get a pass.
Is this a cover-up or an attempt to make sure all people who enabled this get charged?
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I had the same impression from the version in USA Today… clearing the deck for charges that were to be better targeted and documented. I certainly hope the scoundrels are prosecuted and made to pay in addition to getting some jail time.
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Translation if I were Snyder, I might consider hiring an attorney when some of those whose charges were dropped cut deals before new charges are filled.
And Obama didn’t aggressively pursue this why?
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Obama was in Flint making a speech about what happened. He requested a glass of tap water while speaking to the audience to demonstrate that all was okay with the water and had been repaired. While filming, it was noticed in a close-up that he took one sip only and spat it out back into the glass. He then put the full glass behind the podium onto a concealed shelf and did not touch it since.
Obama is a bastard and did nothing for black people other than show them that they too stood the potential to become president and screw the average American and working class person. Shuttering and privatizing public schools, cementing test obsession into place as policy to label students, educators, families, and schools, doing nothing but collect the TARP money without changing economic policy too much or punishing the victimizers of the 2008 crash, avoiding a single payer system and emphasizing a gift to the insurance companies under the ACA, and appointing the head of Monsanto to guard our food and drugs . . . . The list goes on and on.
One of our worst presidents ever, just more polished and civilized in his manners and choice of words. Just as bad as Bush and Trump in most ways, only in different ways.
Shame on Obama and his empty, barren wife. I curse them, but I do most presidents as well, especially Clinton, Reagan, and Bush.
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Two of the best things that can be said about Obama was he was better than his not too different opponent and election of a President from the Black community was a valuable symbol.
But, the miserable situation in the nation today is a product of the tenure of Obama, Clinton, Bush, Reagan and Trump.
Having media cite CAP as the liberal voice, when its Board Chair is Tom Daschle, it was founded by John Podesta and, is/was funded by Gates/Waltons is a huge factor in the losses that the 99% have experienced.
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Barf Barf Barf!!!!
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Exactly
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Lots of incomprehencible stuff in the article, just plain bad reporting, for example: “While waiting for a new pipeline to bring water from lake Huron, the majority-black city of 100,000 pulled water from the Flint River without treating it to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes. Lead infected the distribution system in Flint, where 41% of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty.”
Let’s close read:
1) Waiting for a new pipeline -> implying that existing pipeline was used.
2) Pulled water from the Flint River -> how is this related to old/new pipeline, unless the old pipeline pulls water from the river, which implies that the city has always been pulling water from the river. What has changed then in 2014?
3) The water was not treated to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes -> um, it should have been treated to reduce corrosive effects but was not? Or it was not treated precisely to reduce corrosive effects? Maybe my English is not good enough to read this correctly. According to this http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/ot/su01/OTsu01_chlorinecorrosn.html adding chlorine and then corrosion-control chemicals reduces lead pipes corrosion, and hence lead level in water. On the other hand https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1817707/ chloramine can increase the rate of corrosion.
4) Lead infected the distribution system -> lead is not a virus, it cannot infect. It can pollute, contaminate, poison.
5) the majority-black city of 100,000 … where 41% of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty -> this is orthogonal to the issue and does not make the technical problem clearer.
So, from the above I am still not sure what is the root issue: pulling water from a dirty river or not adding corrosion-control chemicals to that water? I’ve read someplace else that Flint in fact was pulling water from a cleaner source, but switched to pulling water from the river because of budgetary constraints. How this can be linked to the new/old pipeline issue?
So, now the water is treated, but the pipes are still full of lead? And the river is full or toxins? But the crisis has passed (the article says it “was” one of the worst disasters)?
In any case, this is not “one of the worst manmade environmental disasters in US history”, far from it. Also, regarding using lead, the American corporations were using it in leaded gasoline, in lead paint until 1980s, despite knowing of lead toxicity. Everyone was inhaling it just when walking down a street or driving a car. Heck, even ancient Romans learned about lead toxicity the hard way. Corporations want to make money, and they don’t care whether it is safe or not as long as they can make money. This is how this country works. Thanks to Ralph Nader for all his hard work, but the laws he helped to get approved are steadily being watered down or abolished. Amazing how all this air/water/soil/car/airplane protection was mostly a product of one man. So far there is no one to replace him.
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You are indeed confused.
The people of Flint did not decide to switch from the clean water supplied by Detroit to the dirty river water that endangered people’s health.
That decision was made by the Emergency Manager of Flint, appointed by Governor Rick Snyder with a mandate to cut the budget.
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Exactly
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So is the problem in poisoned water from the river, or in leaded pipes, or both? The article does not make it clear. You confirmed the news that I’ve read couple of years ago that Flint used to get cleaner water before switching to pulling from the river.
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The river water was polluted.
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The lead came from the pipes. The corrosion of the pipes that allowed the leaching from the pipes was caused by the change in water sources. One might as well ask which blade of the scissors cut the paper.
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How is this possible? But then in Trump world, any crime is possible and ignored.
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In Republican world. Individual-1 is just the most egregiously toxic symptom.
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“Democrat Dana Nessel is elected Michigan’s new attorney general. Democrat Dana Nessel won the Michigan attorney general race over Republican Tom Leonard. ”
Snyder may want to get an attorney. Some will face new charges and some will turn states evidence.
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In the U.S. whenever someone tries to introduce regulations he is called a Socialist. In the USSR they did pretty much the same, but instead of profiting they simply did not care or they claimed they had to do it the dirty way “right now” to ensure security of the state. Meh, no difference really. I have no faith in humanity.
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The difference is Russia is entrenched as a dictatorship with Putin’s oligarchs looting the common good. Freedom of speech does not exist in Russia. And, dissidents are killed.
Americans are fighting against all of the above. The number among us who support democracy is and will be sorted by electoral process which is another fight that separates the U.S. from Russia. The plutocrats’ (GOP) gerrymandering, voter suppression, Citizens United and Federalist Society judges all face backlash that was too long in coming and too weak ….until now.
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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiZ2vbiieriAhUOPK0KHTRoCuUQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iflscience.com%2Feditors-blog%2Fscience-behind-flint-water-crisis-corrosion-pipes-erosion-trust%2F&psig=AOvVaw1st4rWtMXh34bOYLEwVoOl&ust=1560639620592995 This is an excellent article of the science behind the Flint disaster. There were many working parts that contributed to it, but the cost-cutting decision to not add anti-corrosives to the Flint River water seemed to be the main culprit, and thus caused lead to leach from the pipes into the drinking water supply. The article is a bit technical but well worth a read.
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