Ron Fonger has been one of the most dedicated journalists to the Flint Water Crisis.

Seven years have passed since the beginning replacement of water pipes in Flint. Ron Fonger recaps the issues still outstanding, including the trials of the men that caused the deaths and injury to so many.

April 25, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - Seven years after the city’s water source was switched, (click here) triggering the Flint water crisis, the fallout continues to cast its pall.

While the city expects to close out three major water infrastructure projects related to the water crisis, including the final phase of a pipe replacement program, this year, other reminders of the man-made emergency linger with no clear end in sight.

Although a partial settlement of civil lawsuits filed on behalf of Flint residents could be approved later this year, the cases are continuing against defendants that have so far refused to settle their cases, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency....

The cowards of the GOP can't help but cannibalize themselve.

It sorta reminds me of the Salem Witch Trials. The Republicans just need that smoking pyre of flesh and they will be right at home.

May 7, 2021
By Jessie Balmert

Columbus - The Ohio Republican Party's (click here) leaders called on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez to resign for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump, a stunning rebuke of one of their own.

On Friday, the party's governing board called on Gonzalez, R-Rocky River, to resign in a divided vote. They also voted to censure Gonzalez and nine other members of Congress for "their votes to support the unconstitutional, politically motivated impeachment proceeding against President Donald J. Trump," according to the resolution.

Gonzalez was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead. He is the third to be censured for the vote by his state party, following Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice....

While in Florida, there should be an investigation into DeSantis roll in the corruption to end a repeat election.

March 17, 2021
By Greg Allen

A GOP political operative (click here) is being charged with paying a sham candidate to run for Florida State Senate and unseating the incumbent Democrat. Democrats are calling for a new election.

To Miami now, where Democrats are calling for a new election following the arrests of two men charged with manipulating a state Senate race. Prosecutors say a Republican operative misled voters by recruiting a candidate with the same last name as the incumbent and then paid him to run. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: In Florida and some other states, recruiting ghost or shadow candidates is a well-known political strategy. Katherine Rundle, the state attorney in Miami-Dade County, has seen it before. She says it's always used against an existing officeholder....

Remember how DeSantis didn't care about keeping Floridians safe so much as insuring profits from Spring Break? Well, his lack of real leadership is causing hardship.

Norwegian Cruise Lines is looking for a new homeport. Seriously, now. They need a place where the government doesn't interfere in their corporate policies. Miami is out as far as Norwegian is concerned. Cities along the Gulf of Mexico need to put a bid into Norwegian to win their homeport status.

May 7, 2021
By Hannah Sampson

Port of New Orleans (click here)

One of the world’s largest cruise companies (click here) is ready to send its ships out of Florida if the state prohibits it from requiring passengers to be vaccinated.

Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has said it intends to require 100 percent of passengers and crew to be fully vaccinated to sail. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an executive order in March barring businesses from requiring proof of vaccinations. He signed that order into state law on Monday.

“That’s an issue,” Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio said during an earnings call this week. He said the company has been in talks with the governor’s office, and his legal experts believe the vaccination requirement falls under federal and not state law.

“But at the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and god forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from,” he said. “And we can operate from the Caribbean for ships that otherwise would’ve gone to Florida.”...

Then President Biden wonders why the fight against the virus never seems to end. Here is part of the reason. The country, in a popular vote, threw Trump out for the reasons that were all too obvious and part of that is the poor handling of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. There is still that lingering stench of Trump within the GOP even after an insurrection.

May 6, 2021
By Cindy Krischer Goodman

Florida’s Department of Health (click here) has reported a new coronavirus variant of concern in the state, a mutation of the highly contagious variant first discovered in Brazil.

So far, two cases of the variant known as P2 have emerged in Florida, in a 74-year-old man in Broward County and a 51-year-old woman in Duval County. The variant has a slightly different sequence than the P1 strain, which in Brazil has been found to be more likely to re-infect people who have already had COVID-19 compared to the original virus....

The variants must be contained. That means the CDC and HHS at the federal level must put demands on Florida's counterparts to end the spread of the variants. The federal authority needs to assert the protection of the people when states are poorly lead like Florida. The USA DOJ must provide the federal authority the capacity to protect the people in the absence of scientific principles. If these variants aren't contained there will be many people sick and dying all over again. Bring charges to the irreverent governors that are placing economics before the lives of citizens. What is the USA suppose to do, forget it needs able body people to work it's economy and protect it from harm? Someone in Washington, DC needs to step up to end this willful negligent homicide.

There they are all in their glorious hatred of a black man.

Appendix Table 1 (click here)

There is more crime committed by White People than any other ethnic division in the country.

That report came out in January 2021. Title "Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime and Arrestees, 2018 (click here)

Minorities in the USA get a bad rap because of visual acuity or the lack there of. The fact of the matter is there are more White People in the USA committing crimes and they are leading the number of violent crimes. The highest number of those raping and sexual assault are White People.

May 7, 2021
By Amy Forliti and Michael Balsamo

The Minneapolic Four violated George Floyd's civil rights. All those incidenets of minority citizens running into bad cops are civil rights violations. They are also human rights violations.

Minneapolis — A federal grand jury (click here) has indicted the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest and death, accusing them of willfully violating the Black man’s constitutional rights as he was restrained face-down on the pavement and gasping for air.

A three-count indictment unsealed Friday names Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao.

Specifically, Chauvin is charged with violating Floyd's right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by a police officer. Thao and Kueng are also charged with violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure, alleging they did not intervene to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd's neck. All four officers are charged for their failure to provide Floyd with medical care....

The American Jobs Plan has not passed the US Congress.

Why is that consequential? The answer is in the April Jobs Report. It's is there. I guess the US Congress can't read.

April 1, 2021
By Jim Probasco

President Joe Biden’s nearly $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, (click here) unveiled Wed., March 31, 2021, proposes a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure and jobs investment over eight years, paid for with what the administration calls a “Made in America Corporate Tax Reform Plan,” over the next decade and a half.

The biggest chunk, $1.3 trillion, would go toward infrastructure spending on two fronts, transportation and community. The balance, more than $980 billion, would involve investments in R&D, workforce development, manufacturing, and eldercare.

What follows is a breakdown of proposed spending before negotiations between Republicans and Democrats begin in earnest....

Currently, there is 43 percent of the unemployed that are chronically unemployed. There is nothing that different about the April's Job Report. 

May 7, 2021

...The number of long-term unemployed (click here) (those jobless 

for 27 weeks or more), at 4.2 million, was essentially unchanged in 

April but is 3.1 million higher than in February 2020. 

These long-term unemployed accounted for 43.0 percent of the 

total unemployed in April. (See table A-12.)...

In South Carolina and Montana, there seem to be a lot of lazy opportunists on the unemployment rolls. It is nothing but further victimization of the unemployed and it is in the case of South Carolina racism.

South Carolina has ended the federal unemployment payments of $300 per week.

South Carolina (click here)All:6.7%White:5.7%Black:9.7%Hispanic:NAAAPI:NA

For all those lazy folks in Montana and South Carolina, there will be less incentive to stay on unemployment. That is just plain, ole, White Trash that won't go to work because they have it too good on unemployment.

MontanaAll:5.9%White:5.3%Black:NAHispanic:NAAAPI:NA
So sure is the Montana Governor that there is no chronicly unemployed in his state, he is ending the federal $300 per week and instead providing a work bonus. That spells lazy, lazy, lazy all over it.
...Beginning June 27, (click here) unemployed workers in the state will no longer receive $300 in weekly extra benefits funded by the federal government through Sept. 6.

The state will launch a new program to give bonuses to unemployed workers who return to work....

Yes, indeed. People on unemployment are just generally lazy, no-good people. They understand money though when it is waved under their noses.

...“Montana is open for business again, but I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can’t find workers. Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage,” Gianforte said in a statement....

It is called Job Training that comes in the Biden Job's Bill which hasn't passed Congress to develop those training programs for jobs of the future.

How did I ever guess that both the Montana and South Carolina governors are Republicans. That is the opinion of Republican Governors, that people on unemployment are not good people. They are lazy and have to be provided an incentive to MAKE THEM WORK!

Get out the whips and dogs if necessary!  Heck those dogs haven't been feed for at least a week. That oughta do it.

Yes, indeed. Republicans know how to win over American sentiment, through hate and fear. Works well for them.

Unemployed men and women have families and they need those federal dollars to make ends meet. Those receiving those monies can challenge the State's bad attitude in court to return the monies owed them. If necessary, the unemployed, especially the chronically unemployed, should demand their governors begin training programs so they can fulfill their hopes of the American Dream.