A hearing on the $641 million settlement has to win a judges approval.

A full third of these monies are to go for lawyers' fees. That needs to be pointed out to Judge Levy.

May 21, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - A fairness hearing (click here) over a proposed partial $641-million settlement of civil lawsuits related to the Flint water crisis has been scheduled by a federal judge and is expected to last three days in mid-July.

U.S. District Court Judge Judith E. Levy on Wednesday, May 19, told attorneys involved in the settlement that the hearing will begin at 10 a.m. July 12, continue until 1 p.m., return at 2 p.m. and continue until 4 p.m. that day.

Levy said she will be available to continue the same schedule on July 13, and also scheduled the hearing to continue at 9 a.m. July 15.

The judge said the hearing must be held virtually because federal court officials have decided not to authorize an in-person meeting at that time because of COVID-19 concerns and restrictions.

More than 150 individuals have filed objections to the settlement, according to federal court records, and many of those have requested to address the court during the hearing, including former Flint mayors Woodrow Stanley and Karen Weaver.

July’s hearing is the next step in the moving the settlement process forward and is a required step before the judge can determine whether the agreement proposed by attorneys for residents, the state of Michigan, and others is fair, adequate, reasonable, and has been an arms-length transaction....

There is also one official in all this that wants her old job back, because, her criminal charges were repealed. Liane Shekter Smith was used as a scapegoat by Snyder. She should be interviewed by the press and/or compelled to testify at the trial of the Flint Nine.

The case against her was mute.

The Emergency Manager Law dissolved the authority of everyone, except, the Emergency Manager. The law removes any democratic process. So, no matter how much she may or may not have invoked her authority, as was the case with the Federal EPA, it was ignored by Snyder. She needs to be held for testimony.

I have stated this before, why Snyder is not held for at the very least negligent homicide is anyone's guess. Snyder was refusing to act on the authority of others, including the Federal EPA. You can say all you want about the Emergency Manager, but, it was Synder getting the letters about Flint and ignoring them. He negated democracy, including the referendum voted on and passed by the people of Michigan to end the law. There was nothing but determination by Snyder to see out his agenda of wealth for his friends. In every instance of the actions of the Emergency Manager, precious assets of the cities involved were sold to Snyder's friends for development. 

There is also a piece of this often overlooked, the name of the chemical is trihalomethane. It is a carcinogen and it was in the water that came out of the Flint River. It was the Flint City Council that acted to end that danger, not the state. The MDEQ warned the City Council of the chemical in the water (click here), but, it was the City Council operating even with an Emergency Manager in place, that acted to end the danger of THM. 

...In February 2015, (click here) more than nine months after the change to Flint River water, Flint hired Veolia Water North America Operating Services (“VNA”) to help solve the serious problem of THM contaminating the public water supply....

May 20, 2021

By Ed White

Liane Shekter-Smith (click here) (second from far right) pictured in 2011. She was terminated Friday.

The only Michigan official fired (click here) in the Flint water disaster wants to be reinstated and get years of back pay after a criminal case against her fizzled into a misdemeanor that was ultimately erased.

Liane Shekter Smith and the state's environment department are meeting privately this week with an arbitrator, more than five years after then-Gov. Rick Snyder dismissed her in 2016, attorneys said.

Shekter Smith was head of Michigan's drinking water office when Flint, with the state's approval, used the Flint River for water in 2014-15, a catastrophic step that contaminated the system with lead. The highly corrosive water wasn't properly treated before it flowed through aging pipes to roughly 100,000 residents.

In 2016, a task force appointed by Snyder said the Department of Environmental Quality, as the agency was known at the time, misapplied lead and copper rules in Flint and "caused this crisis to happen."...

The masters of witch hunts, Trump and Barr. They wanted to fabricate lies.

Barbara Starr is one of the most reliable voices in the media when it comes to facts to provide the American people a clear picture of their military. She is above reproach when it comes to providing needed exposure of wrongful acts within the military command. Relying on her has spanned decades. Clearly, the Trump White House wanted to control the messages to the American people for their own politics. This is an outrage.

The American people end wars with facts presented by the media. It is a vital part of the country's governance. Reports, especially those covering military movements and priorities are among the most important Americans have to moderate their presence in the world. There is no question Barbara Starr serves a noble purpose in the country.

I find it interesting too, that Barr and Trump decided to create an unworthiness of still yet another American woman.

May 20, 2021
By Jeremy Herb and Jessica Schneider

A free press (click here) is a national security imperative. CNN Pentagon correspondent. RT not endorsement.

Washington - The Trump administration secretly sought and obtained (click here) the 2017 phone and email records of a CNN correspondent, the latest instance where federal prosecutors have taken aggressive steps targeting journalists in leak investigations.

The Justice Department informed CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, in a May 13 letter, that prosecutors had obtained her phone and email records covering two months, between June 1, 2017 to July 31, 2017. The letter listed phone numbers for Starr's Pentagon extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number and her home and cell phones, as well as Starr's work and personal email accounts.

It is unclear when the investigation was opened, whether it happened under Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Attorney General William Barr, and what the Trump administration was looking for in Starr's records. The Justice Department confirmed the records were sought through the courts last year but provided no further explanation or context....

It is difficult to think of Juneau, Alaska without cruise ships filling it's port.

Cruise ships have a difficult enough time protecting passengers from viruses and bacteria, to think a COVID-19 outbreak would be tolerated in theory and practice is a civil rights violation. All people proceed with vacations abroad cruise ships with the idea they are safe from every form of illness except seasickness caused by motion and not invading organisms.

The ships are demanding vaccinations before boarding to protect all the people on the cruise. That is a responsible business model that should be mandated where people gather, especially on a cruise ship.

May 20, 2021

By Heidi Groover

Cruises from Seattle to Alaska (click here) are set to return this summer after federal lawmakers cleared the way for sailings that have been on hold since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The move signals the return of a significant slice of downtown Seattle’s economy, where some waterfront businesses plan staffing around the cruise schedule. But significant questions remain about exact safety protocols the cruise lines will enforce.

Proof of vaccination will be required, the companies said Thursday. Decisions about masks, social distancing and precise quarantine procedures are still to come.

Cruise ships became early emblems of the pandemic when outbreaks aboard ships last year stranded crews and passengers on board for weeks. This spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working on guidelines to allow cruise ships to resume operations....

The definition of what violates the ceasefire has to be specific and overwhelming.

There are violent extremists on both sides that will seek to break the ceasefire, so the terms of a broken ceasefire need to be specific and an act of the military. All other attempts should be viewed as criminal.

The picture below reminds me of the former hate that existed between different religions in Beirut.

May 20, 2021
By Fares and Joseph Krauss

Gaza City, Gaza Strip - Israel and Hamas agreed (click here) to a cease-fire Thursday, halting a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, brought life in much of Israel to a standstill and left more than 200 people dead.

At 2 a.m. local time, just as the cease-fire took effect, frenzy life returned to the streets of Gaza. People went out of their homes, some shouting “Allahu Akbar” or whistling from balconies. Many fired in the air, celebrating the truce....

This conflict has waged for decades and it serves Israel's agenda of taking land that belongs to the Palestinians. Why end a war that is so fruitful to a destructive agenda. There is no room for peace in such an agenda. 

Both sides of this conflict need to stay within their legal borders and US Peacekeepers assigned to the borders and if necessary the streets of Jerusalem.

This effort to end killing and return to peace is vital to both countries. The idea Israel can carry out policing duties anywhere near the Palestine border is nonsense. There is too much hate of each other with both Israelis and Palestinians to believe such destructive incursions into Gaza will come to an end.

All the checkpoints in Israel and Palestine with rare exceptions should be controlled by international peacekeepers with the largest percentage coming from the USA. The violence will stop then. The USA State Department should be actively engaging all parties in a peaceful resolution that guarantees Palestine and Israel their homelands.

President Biden has conducted a magnificent end to the violence in his first term. It is impressive as it occurred within days of his declaration to end the carnage in Gaza. President Biden's initiative in Gaza only proves there are responsible parties to deal with and a peaceful profile is possible in this region of the world.

A peace treaty is very possible. All of the Palestinian authorities including their most radical group leaders must provide willing participants to craft a permanent peace treaty, which needs to include Israel's safety alongside a viable economy for Gaza and the West Bank.

Hatred of each party of the other must end. This must be documented in a treaty written to last. Generations of young people were raised hating each other and that is not at all societies that result in people longing for peace. The idea children are allowed to hate other children is a form of genocide not witnessed on this Earth for a long time. It has to end and mutual friendships of the young people have to be proposed with a concentration on educational excellence and sports teams that dictate the level of rivalry between the two countries. 

Palestine needs an embassy in Jerusalem that is outside the building of the American Embassy. There is to be a free flow of movement to holy places the two countries share as well as worshipers from all over the world. To think Jerusalem can be a place of hate, disregard, and political dogma is blasphemy of it's holy name.

Let the peace process start now and result in a lasting peace between these two peoples.

A bill that compromises the Governor's security is unconstitutional.

Governor Whitmer is the Executive Officer of the State of Michigan and her security is paramount to her job.

Trump made a big deal of "That Woman" and the Republicans have played it up as their politics ever since. I really think Republicans hate women in general unless they are wearing a French Maid's negligence in the kitchen. Their attacks are anti-woman.

The people have knowledge of her travel when expenses are submitted for reimbursement. Nothing else is necessary. Any bill demanding such scrutiny of a Governor is a violation of her/his civil rights.

May 19, 2021

By Dave Boucher

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (click here) would need to notify legislative leaders when leaving the state if a new GOP bill — with clear political motivations — becomes law.

The measure, proposed by Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, comes as Republicans continue to ridicule Whitmer over a controversial trip to Florida to visit her ailing father. Critics blasted the trip, arguing it was hypocritical given state travel advice during a pandemic, and asked the governor to give more details about her travel....