The pipe refit will take up to three more years and many people in Flint are still using bottled water.

It is just a little hypocritical to being selling water to a Wall Street company when Michigan can't even provide healthy water for it's residents.

April 13, 2017

By Amy Biolchini 

Big Rapids, MI - The Flint water crisis (click here) loomed large Wednesday night over a state public hearing where almost 500 people gathered to weigh in on whether Nestle should be able to draw more groundwater to bottle and sell.

"The injustice of this situation could not be starker," said Liz Kirkwood, executive director of For Love of Water (FLOW). "At the same time the people of Flint are forced to drink bottled water, the state is considering authorizing a water grab for a $200 fee."

Fifty-five people opposed the company's permit application during the public hearing, urging the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to protect the state's water instead of kowtowing to Nestle.

Passions were high during the three-and-a-half-hour-long event. The crowd at Ferris State's University Center in Big Rapids clapped often and several times erupted with chants...

Participants in providing water to Flint residents are referring them to the city to obtain their needs.

April 9, 2017

by Roberto Costa

Flint, MI - One water resource site (click here) will be closed to residents when the week begins in Flint.

The resource site at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, 4805 N. Saginaw St., in the city's 3^rd Ward, closed at 6 p.m. Friday, April 7 due to facility commitments and is set to reopen at noon Tuesday, April 11.

"The Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church continues to be an active partner during the Flint water emergency," said Capt. Chris Kelenske, Deputy State Director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and commander of the MSP/EMHSD. "Our water resource sites are built on a relationship with our local partners. Sometimes our partners have commitments to their property and we must honor their requests."...

It is good to know Flint residents are not standing alone in regard to Nestle. Congressman Kildee is in their corner.

April 13, 2017

By Amy Biolchini

Grand Rapids, MI -- Congressman Dan Kildee (click here) sent a strongly worded letter to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Thursday opposing Nestle Ice Mountain's request to pump more groundwater out of a well near Evart.

"I support Nestle's desire to create jobs in Michigan, but not at the cost of damaging our environment and depleting our state's water resources," Kildee wrote in the letter. 

U.S. Rep. Kildee, D-Flint Twp., said his constituents have urged him to oppose the permit request. A number of Flint residents attended a DEQ public hearing Wednesday, April 12, in Big Rapids to oppose Nestle's application....             

No Jedi? Sacrilege.

Governor Terry Brandstad needs to pay income tax refunds rather than pad his Iowa Treasury.

4/14/17
By Chris Eger

Republican Gov. Terry Branstad (click here) signed two proposals on Thursday that bring a wide range of changes to Iowa’s gun laws including instituting “stand your ground” protections.

In all, Branstad signed some 14 pieces of legislation to include HF 517, an omnibus gun rights package, and HF 475, a popular measure expanding the use of straight-walled cartridge rifles to hunt deer.

Of the two, HF 517 was by far the more controversial in its passage and was subject to lengthy debate in the GOP-controlled legislature before passing the Iowa Senate 33-17 and House 57-36 earlier this month.

“Just signed HF517, making Iowa one of the most pro-2nd amendment states in the country,” Branstad posted to social media....

April 14, 2017
By Merrit Kennedy

A Michigan emergency room doctor (click here) has been charged with performing female genital mutilation on multiple girls of about the age of seven.

The Department of Justice says it believes this is the first case brought under a federal law that criminalizes the practice, which is widely condemned as both harmful to the physical and mental health of women and girls and a violation of their human rights.

"Female genital mutilation constitutes a particularly brutal form of violence against women and girls. It is also a serious federal felony in the United States," Daniel Lemisch, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in a statement. "The practice has no place in modern society and those who perform FGM on minors will be held accountable under federal law."...

...FGM is practiced in dozens of countries, most commonly in Africa, but also in parts of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America. It is not restricted to members of a single faith; according to the U.N.'s Population Fund, it is practiced by some Muslim groups, "some Christians, Ethiopian Jews, and followers of certain traditional African religions." That's why the U.N. views it as a cultural practice, rather than a religious one.

Local Child Protective Services personnel working with investigators then spoke with "multiple minor girls" who said Nagarwala had operated on their genitals....

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala was charged in Detroit Wednesday with mutilating the genitalia of young girls.


There are times when people ignorant of American law should be regarded as a danger to a child, however, the vast majority of Foster Parent cases are not of this context, they are children wrongly taken from their families and used for the purpose of economic gain of those that practice within it.

The Foster Parent system is huge and extremely expensive and at the end of it all are not children well adjusted and model citizens. The majority of Foster Children serve a jail term of some kind. 

THE FOSTER PARENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN, except, for the people that earn their paychecks from it. The END PRODUCT of Foster Parenting is not worth the investment!

The families that become the victim of the USA Foster Parent system should be provided services to improve their circumstances. The majority of the children taken in the USA are from impoverished families. There is much to be said about the conditions the parents were living with in attempts to raise their children. 

A real economy with jobs that pay a living wage will go a long way to ending the Foster Parent system with rare exceptions such as this.

Given the fact the majority of children are African American, the Foster Parent system is enforced racism with the result of a high population of imprisonment. The Foster Parent system should be dismantled and families given priority in raising their children.

The USA government needs to enforce the dignity of the American people of all races and religions and actually encourage labor unions and good paying jobs. 

It isn't really the White House visitor logs that is of interest, right? Trump is never there.

April 14, 2017

The Trump administration (click here) will not voluntarily disclose logs of visitors to the White House complex, it announced Friday, breaking with the practice started under former President Obama. 

The White House cited “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns” of people who visit the White House, according to Time. Officials said that keeping the visitor logs private is necessary to protect President Trump’s ability to seek advice from people “with some discretion.” 

A limited number of records of visitors to White House departments, such as the Office of Management and Budget, will be accessible through Freedom of Information Act requests. But most will not, including those that apply to the president and his senior staff....

Is the official visits to Maralago considered White House visits? If so, then the information should be forthcoming under the freedom of information act.

Trump is screaming national security. Even the bin Laden memo was redacted. How much security legitimizes such actions by the Oval Office. They are logs, not documents. 

Reconnaissance, please.

The USA military needs to conduct reconnaissance. Unless, of course, the idea propaganda can exist without the truth. Perhaps the USA military ignores ignores the truth as an important leading to the end of a deadly charismatic movement. Right now, the Taliban and Daesh are laughing at the USA. Does the enemy have a reason to laugh?

April 14, 2017
By James Griffiths, Barbara Starr and Angela Dewan,

Nicholson (click here) gave a vague response to a question by reporters on who exactly ordered or greenlighted the strike, saying only that he enjoyed a certain amount of "latitude" to make decisions in his chain of command.

Nicholson also confirmed the strike was carried out in coordination with Afghan officials, and said that the mission had conducted rigorous surveillance before, during and after the operation to prevent civilian deaths.

"Let me be clear -- we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our Afghan comrades to destroy ISIS-K in 2017," he said, referring to ISIS' regional branch.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he approved of the strike and that it was designed to support Afghan forces and US forces conducting clearance operations in the region.

But former president Hamid Karzai accused the US of using Afghanistan as "a testing ground for new and dangerous weapons."