Tag: Flint Water Crisis

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Petition to Recall Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder is Approved

Rick Snyder, the governor who approved and spearheaded the poisoning of Flint’s children by giving them water from the Flint river to drink, could be recalled from office in an upcoming recall election.

The Board of State Canvassers, part of the secretary of state’s office, rejected nine other recall petitions, six of them based on Snyder’s widely criticized handling of lead from corroded pipes that began leaching into Flint homes following a cost-saving move to pump water from the Flint River.

The water crisis is under criminal investigation by state and federal authorities.

But the petition approved Monday seeks to remove Snyder, a Republican, from office over his decision last year to take control of the state office to reform schools, which organizers say disregards local prerogatives, according to The Detroit News and The Associated Press.

It takes three members of the four-person member board, which is split between Republicans and Democrats, to approve a recall petition.

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Flint Residents Say Hillary Clinton’s Visit was All About Politics

Some of Flint’s residents have a message for the former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton – don’t use us for your own political gain.

Hillary Clinton visited Flint Michigan on Sunday to bring more attention to the catastrophic water problems caused by Michigan Republican governor, Rick Snyder. Mrs. Clinton would be the first one to say that her visit was not political, but according to some residents, the visit was just another ploy by the Clinton campaign to get votes when Michigan goes to the polls on March 8th.

“I feel blessed to be here but I wish it were for a different reason,” Clinton said, as she took to the stage at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church. “But I am here because for nearly two years mothers and fathers were voicing concerns about the water’s color and its smell, about the rashes that it gave to those that were bathing in it. And for nearly two years Flint was told the water was safe.”

Some however, felt the photo-op moment was just to get votes.

“Don’t jump on a cause just to get votes,” said Flint Lives Matter organiser Calandra Patrick, as Clinton’s jet arrived in town. “It doesn’t matter to me if she makes an appearance or not – it doesn’t matter to me one bit.”

Arnette Rison III, a 47-year-old independent contractor, put Clinton’s visit in starker terms: “If she’s bringing 35,000 hydroelectric filters, I’ll love her for it. But that’s not what she’s about to do.”

At the church, though the topic was serious, the mood was jovial and warm. Clinton stood before a packed audience and spoke emphatically about the moral imperatives of the situation, saying: “The children in Flint are just as precious as the children in any other part of America”.

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Republican Analysts Surprised that GOP has Ignored the Flint Water Crisis

For the rest of the country, this is not a surprise. But some in the Republican party are shocked at the apparent coördinated effort by their Republican presidential candidates to avoid the Flint Water Crisis at all costs.

A number of Republican operatives and allies Friday lamented that the GOP has largely been ignoring the water crisis in Flint and warned that it sends a terrible message to the nation.

“This is an amoral display of political apathy by Republican leaders. Their failure to run to the crisis, roll up their sleeves and pitch in tells the world that we are still the same old Republicans who only care about those who would vote for or contribute to them,” said Alex Castellanos, a political operative who is not working for any of the Republican presidential contenders.

Castellanos said he agreed with an op-ed in the New York Times Thursday written by former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer, who worked for President George W. Bush.

Latimer, a Flint native, wrote that the water crisis was “the Republicans’ chance to show their worth,” and to demonstrate that party leaders who have tried to refocus the GOP on poverty, like House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, mean what they say.

Why aren’t Republican presidential candidates, he asked, “shipping in water bottles and holding fund-raisers for kids now condemned to lowered expectations because their brains were poisoned by lead?”

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Numerous Reports of Poisonous Water in Flint Dismissed by Snyder’s Administration

Politics over people? Why yes please!

Since releasing his emails regarding the Flint water crisis, reports show that the Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, along with members of his administration repeatedly dismissed numerous findings that Flint’s drinking water was highly contaminated with lead.

 A top aide to Michigan’s governor referred to people raising questions about the quality of Flint’s water as an “anti-everything group.” Other critics were accused of turning complaints about water into a “political football.” And worrisome findings about lead by a concerned pediatrician were dismissed as “data,” in quotes.

That view of how the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder initially dealt with the water crisis in the poverty-stricken, black-majority city of Flint emerged from 274 pages of emails, made public by the governor on Wednesday.

The correspondence records mounting complaints by the public and elected officials, as well as growing irritation by state officials over the reluctance to accept their assurances.

It was not until late in 2015, after months of complaints, that state officials finally conceded what critics had been contending: that Flint was in the midst of a major public health emergency, as tap water pouring into families’ homes contained enough lead to show up in the blood of dozens of people in the city. Even small amounts of lead could cause lasting health and developmental problems in children.

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Gov Snyder Requested Federal Disaster Relief in Flint – Obama Refused

And the president refused with for a good reason.

The Flint water crisis is man-made, created by Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, and his government appointed overseer. The president did agree that the people of Flint needed help and declared the water crisis a federal emergency, sending necessary aid to the people who were literally poisoned by Snyder’s water decision.

But Snyder wanted more from Obama. With a federal disaster declaration, Snyder would get more money from the Federal government at a faster pace. So Snyder asked the president to declare Flint a federal disaster area. Obama did not go along with the Republican governor’s appeal.

A disaster declaration would have made larger amounts of federal funding available more quickly to help Flint residents whose drinking water is contaminated with lead. But under federal law, only natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods are eligible for disaster declarations, federal and state officials said. The lead contamination of Flint’s drinking water is a manmade catastrophe.
The president’s actions authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate responses and cover 75% of the costs for much-needed water, filters, filter cartridges and other items for residents, capped initially at $5 million. The president also offered assistance in finding other available federal assistance, a news release Saturday from the White House said.
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