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Six Michigan state employees are being charged with crimes related to the coverup of unsafe drinking water conditions in Flint:
Six Michigan state workers have been charged with hiding data that showed that drinking water was unsafe in the city of Flint. Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in 2014 after the city changed its water supply. The lead investigator said that they "effectively buried" data showing that elevated levels of lead in children's' blood was tied to the water supply. The six people are all health and environmental workers. Investigators said they put "children in the cross-hairs of drinking poison".
Also at NPR, Reuters, and Detroit Free Press .
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Prosecutor Charges Six Employees in Flint, Michigan Water Investigation
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Have at you!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @09:54AM
Kids growing up in Michigan today have no hope of ever finding work, with all the jobs being outsourced to India and China and - very soon - Africa. The political climate for the foreseeable future precludes any sort of universal basic income for Americans, so these forward thinking state workers tried to help out by giving kids an easy way to live on disability payments.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @12:19PM
That's cute you think they will be looked after on disability. But really they will be in a for profit prison making widgets for wages so low it makes Chinese laugh.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 31 2016, @01:57PM
Yup. They can't even look forward to being garbage collectors. Michigan, you fucking rock! [mlive.com] Way to fucking fail at all the sanitation basics that make up the fundamentals of fucking civilization!
FLINT, MI – City officials are asking residents to not sit trash out until further notice.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver's office issued a July 30 statement announcing that the city no longer has trash service and garbage will not be picked up starting Monday.
…
The announcement comes after the city's contract with Republic Services expired on July 29 at 5 p.m. The trash contract has been an ongoing dispute since June when the Flint City Council voted against Weaver's recommendation to award a $17.5-million-trash contract to Rizzo Environmental Services.
Initially, council members said they wanted to research the company and some members also questioned Rizzo's ties to former Mayor Woodrow Stanley and potential ties the company may have in Canada.
The council came back on July 18 and voted 8 – 1 against hiring Rizzo to haul Flint's trash even though their bid came in $2 million lower than Republic, the company who held the trash contract until July 29.
Weaver later vetoed the council's decision to renew a contract with Republic and the council voted to override her decision.
Council President Kerry Nelson said the decision to end trash services are "exclusively the decision of Mayor Karen Weaver."
Anyway, on to trying to find the on-topic information I was looking for over there.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:41PM
Time to put that city council to work picking up the trash. In the meantime homeowners should dump their garbage in front of city hall. I mean, I really hope they aren't that dumb to let their own houses fill up with trash.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:21AM
Two state regulators, one city employee, three employees of MDEA, and 3 employes of MDOH. Two regulators, and seven employees. WTF was management during all of this? I want to see elected officials and management people being held accountable.
Joe Schmuck who just takes samples and sends them to a lab isn't good enough. Joe may or may not be competent, reliable, or whatever. WTF WAS JOE'S MANAGER?!?!?!
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:32AM
Management saw the bottomline and it looked good. The dollars were melting off the invoices and all was well. Cost became marginal and bonuses went through the roof. Management was pleased by the result of their underlings and drove away in bigger cars than before. No harm can come from optimizing dollar-flow in the right and upward direction of management. A proven result from the public market. Money is no dirty business and you can always blame someone else for the right price.
/s
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday July 31 2016, @05:48PM
Management saw the bottomline and it looked good.
Is your spell checker broken, or are you in advertising (Fastfood, carline, etc)? There is no such word in the English language. Ignorance like that makes me wince.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Monday August 01 2016, @12:25AM
(Score: 4, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 31 2016, @02:28PM
I think your indignation is misdirected. These people had definite responsibilities. MLive has a slideshow about these people [mlive.com] (also includes 3 others that had already been charged towards the end). I count 2 directors, a chief, a manager, and two others that had some kind of responsibilities that include signing permits and interpreting Joe's data.
Here are Joe's managers:
Liane Shekter-Smith, former Chief of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance [sounds like management to me]
Adam Rosenthal, Water Quality Analyst: Charges allege that current MDEQ employee Adam Rosenthal, who worked in Shekter-Smith's section, was warned by Flint Water Treatment Plant officials that they were not ready for operations and was later warned by the EPA that high levels of lead is usually due to particulate lead, signaling a corrosion problem. The charges also allege that in 2015, Rosenthal willfully participated in the manipulation of lead testing results and falsely reported that the 90th percentile of the results for lead water testing was below the federal action level.
Patrick Cook, Specialist for Community Drinking Water Unit: Charges allege that Patrick Cook, who is the current MDEQ official responsible for compliance with lead and copper monitoring, signed a permit in 2014 that was the last approval necessary for the use of the Flint Water Treatment Plant. Prosecutor's allege Cook was aware of problems with the water in Flint, but took no corrective action in his duty to ensure the provision of clean, safe drinking water in Flint. Cook also allegedly mislead the EPA regarding necessity of using corrosion control in Flint after the switch when he forwarded information he knew to be false to the federal agency in response to its inquiry, according to prosecutors.
Nancy Peeler, Director, Program for Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting [sounds like management to me]
Robert Scott, Data Manager for the Healthy Homes and Lead Prevention program [sounds like management to me]
Corinne Miller, Former Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and State Epidemiologist [sounds like management to me]
As far as the 3 others, those sort of appear to be somewhat low-level, but it sounds like they were caught so the larger fish above could be fried. One of them, Mike Glasgow, accepted a plea bargain and “provided important testimony.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @02:44PM
And the state brass never pressured them to show that the Flint water was safe, these low level people just did all this on their own.
Is there a bridge for sale?
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 31 2016, @02:54PM
Did you read my comment? These weren't “low level” people, dipshit. Want to present your argument that a director is a low level person?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 31 2016, @03:03PM
Good find - apparently these people are higher ranking than I understood. And, that is as it should be. Technicians and laborers have no responsibility, it's management that is responsible for almost everything. Even craftsmen and engineers seldom get to make real decisions - they have to report to management, who then make the decisions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:20PM
Technicians and laborers have no responsibility...
Actually, if the technicians see that their results are being suppressed they DO have a responsibility. Speaking as a water quality analyst in a previous career.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @08:30AM
"Cook also allegedly mislead (sic) the EPA"
Damn - that lead is everywhere...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by unitron on Sunday July 31 2016, @12:49PM
...for some reason.
Can't imagine why.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @03:50PM
I don't know about Flint, but around here the water authority* is packed with political patronage jobs including many high paid managers...who have no background in public health, water/chemistry or even in plumbing.
*"Authorities" are set up to get major budget items outside of normal county or state accounting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @07:42PM
Where is "around here"?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:51PM
Planet Earth
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Funny) by Rich on Sunday July 31 2016, @07:42PM
The lead lead inspector?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 01 2016, @08:07AM
The plumbum leaded one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford