The apogee of silliness over Flint’s tainted water, however, is the suggestion that Republican presidential candidates personally help distribute bottled water in Flint, raise funds to help affected residents, and take similar actions to demonstrate their compassion toward-or “solidarity” with-the residents of Flint. State Senator Jim Ananich represents the city of Flint.
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Disgraced Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, wrote in a letter from prison that MI officials have known about contaminated water in Flint since 2004.
“We have not received any relief from the state on this at all”, Henderson said.
The crisis in Flint, whose population is largely black, struck many as a fresh example of environmental racism, which leaves African-Americans disproportionately relegated to neighborhoods affected by pollution. “We go into this with no preconceptions”. It claims that Detroit officials “were talking about the problems of the Flint Water Department (financial management, ability to perform, cleanliness of water, elimination of contaminants, mercury levels, lead levels) back in 2004”.
MI taxpayers through the state legislature will pick up the tab for all this, but at this rate, the attorney general has no idea what he will pay these new hires. “It’s about doing it right”, he said. The assumption behind handing them control of city finances is that they are grown-ups who, unlike politicians, are immune from special interest pressure and therefore more capable of making tough cuts.
At St. Andrew’s AME Church, parishioners have donated money to buy water filters for Flint, Michigan residents.
Not enough data exist yet to say whether that sentiment is widely shared by MI residents, who rated Snyder highly as recently as last summer.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, we know the mechanics of how it happened. With the help of family, friends and the Kalamazoo community, they were able to collect 466 cases of water as well as 50 one-gallon water jugs within one week.
Schuette, fending off criticism from the Michigan Democratic Party that Flood contributed to the Republican governor’s campaign, said there will be no favoritism in the investigation. So that is where the trust has really crumbled in the city. Scratch the surface and there’s an attitude outside of Flint of ‘who cares?’ The net is replete with jokes, and the contamination and its cover-up are filler for cable news and fodder for columnists. That is really what led to this… “Gov. Snyder said he wants to make sure that no one in Flint has their water shut off, and we’re aware of potential revenue challenges”.
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JUDY WOODRUFF: It’s such a tough story. Also, some years only show data for Genesee County, but other years show both Genesee and Flint, which suggests that Flint levels are about 1.6x higher than Genesee.
