By Kevin Billings
U.S. District judge ruled Thursday (click here) that the residents of Flint, Michigan, can proceed with the 2017 lawsuit against the federal government for its poor response to the 2014 water crisis.
Judge Linda V. Parker said that the government wasn’t immune to lawsuits in this circumstance. Parker based this decision on Environmental Protection Agency employees who knew there was lead leaching from the old pipes because of the Flint water not being treated properly and misled residents about it.
"(The court) can today state with certainty that the acts leading to the creation of the Flint Water Crisis, alleged to be rooted in lies, recklessness and profound disrespect have and will continue to produce a heinous impact for the people of Flint," Parker said.
Attorney Michael Pitt, who is representing Flint residents against the U.S., told the Detroit News that Parker's ruling would "shake up the EPA."...
Congress is getting serious. It is starting to feel like America again.
April 19, 2019
By Melissa Nann Burke
Washington — Michigan officials (click here) have provided congressional investigators with tens of thousands of documents related to the Flint water crisis since the start of the year.
The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is continuing to work "cooperatively" with the House Oversight and Reform Committee to produce the documents that the panel requested, Nessel spokesman Dan Olsen said this week.
"Our office has already supplied the committee with tens of thousands of pages of documents, and we are diligently working to send the rest," Olsen said.
Olsen added that, while some of the records provided to the committee have been submitted previously, "most of these pages of documents are new."
The Attorney General's Office is sending the documents in response to Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who in late December wrote to then-Gov. Rick Snyder asking he "fully comply" with the committee's 2016 bipartisan request for documents related to the water crisis....
Governor Whitmer is making Flint whole again. There are thousands of children and hundreds that became ill with Legionella Disease and there are many died from it. This isn't going to be ignored by anyone. NOT EVER AGAIN.
What is that expression? "Never Forget."
When Michigan officials switched water sources for Flint, Michigan, from Lake Huron to the Flint River it introduced iron and lead into the water supply.
Flint – The city of Flint (click here) is getting another $77 million in funding from the state to pay for water infrastructure improvements.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced a $77.7 million loan to the city. Interest will be zero percent and 100 percent of the principal will be forgiven, effectively making it a grant....
