Michigan Democrats have had a truly incredible afternoon: they've ended the state's anti-union "right to work" law, repealed an abortion ban from 1931, enacted universal background checks on gun sales, and passed an LGBTQ anti-discrimination law. All in the last 24 hours
FLINT FINALLY GOT THE $77.7 MILLION DOLLARS IN FEDERAL FUNDING THEY WERE PROMISED 5 (FIVE) YEARS AGO…..
Priorities
1,571 ÷ 365 = 4. FOUR YEARS WITH WATER YOU CAN LIGHT ON FIRE COMING OUT OF YOUR TAP. JUST SAYIN
I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS HASNT BEEN COMPLETEY FIXED ?!?!?
I’m just scared people are going to forget about Flint and forget about these children.
#DontforgetaboutFlint
#EnvironmentalRacism
Some good news for y’all. The ACLU won a victory the other day in Flint Michigan. What do you want to bet that the cost of having to supply residents with clean water will inspire change pretty quickly?
Please donate to the ACLU if you haven’t already. You can probably spare $10. Give them $10. It goes so so far.
Hundreds of plumbers from across the United States traveled to Flint, Michigan, to help out embattled residents on Saturday. It’s a heartwarming episode in what has otherwise been a nightmare saga for the city of 99,000. The plumbers’ work could be a game changer for Flint residents.
This isn’t space related. But this needs exposure immediately.
This person is talking about the crisis of obtaining fresh water in their town of Flint, Michigan.
[captions]
Black hoodie: “So, in Flint- where the water has been proven over and over scientifically that it’s poison, it’s toxic, it’s not getting better- we pay the highest rates in the nation for the lowest quality water. Um, we’re at Mission of Hope where their water was shut off I think for a $1,200 water bill. My water bills are currently $1049 as of today. Um, we don’t wanna pay it, we keep fighting to pay it, but, um-”
Voice offscreen: “What happens if you don’t pay the water?”
Black hoodie: “If you- Historically, in Flint, if you don’t pay the water bill they will, um, shut you off after 90 days, cap your sewer, and they can condemn your home, and if you don’t have proper hygiene for your kids then CPS gets called in. It’s nice and wonderful, and they can take your home, so people have lost their homes-”
Baseball hat: “So they cap your water, you don’t have water coming in, you don’t have poisonous water coming in, and then they charge you for not having water come into your-”
Black hoodie: “Oh yeah. And then if you don’t pay your water bill they will put a, um, a tax lien on your property that includes your back water bill. And people -I think 16,000 people or more- have lost their homes.”
Baseball hat: “So you lose your- I don’t know what the value of homes are here…”
Black hoodie: “Not much anymore.”
Baseball hat: “Let’s say you have a home that’s worth $80,000, and your tax lien is $1000, you lose your $80,000 home to a tax lien plus your $1000 water bill. But you don’t have the $3,000 to pay the tax lien or the water bill, so they have your house and your property for $2,000 [another person says something inaudible in the background] And your kids!”
Black hoodie: “Yeah, if you have no home and they live with you, they can take your kids. Now they keep saying they’ve put a pause on shutoffs since we made it a huge national deal, no guarantee. And we’re still getting water bills! So they put a pause on shutoffs but we’re still getting a water bill, so when that ‘pause’ is lifted we’re gonna owe all this money. So we’re tying to get it wiped out and so far, no help. Y’know, no help. And many of us are still buying bottled water because getting down to the fire stations is difficult, if not impossible, and, uh, there are places that aren’t near fire stations and grocery stores. Like the north end, close to where we’re at now.”
Baseball hat: “So lemme ask you a question- we don’t live here, so what- what’s the, what’s the- how do you deal with it every day? How do you deal with not have- I mean, you don’t have drinkable, tolerable water. It’s citywide, right? City wide?”
Black hoodie: “It’s citywide. Unfortunately, we still have to bathe in it so we’re still getting exposed- I have a doctor’s appointment at 3:30 because I’m not getting any better. Uh, in my family we’re dealing with seizures, anemia, bone loss, bone breakage, diverticulosis, liver failure, and that’s just me. Um, [laughs nervously] as well as breathing issues, because you’re breathing in the steam from the chemicals, so what you try to do is you try to limit your kids exposure, you plan your meals-”
Baseball hat: “You’re adapting to-”
Black hoodie: “Yes. You plan your meals around how much bottled water you have. Um, if you don’t have enough bottled water you don’t get to make soup or you can’t rinse your meat and your vegetables because you’re not gonna use that tap water. Um, the filters they give out don’t fit my sink because I have a pull-out sprayer. Also we just found out that in a lot of homes it’s not enough anyways, the filters aren’t filtering the high levels or lead. So we just found out that people who thought they were safe are not, that the little plastic filters- surprise- may not be working.”
Baseball hat: “Has anyone given you, like, testers? So you can be able to test the water for lithium, uh-”
Black hoodie: “We have the, we have the- right now the EPA is in for, uh, previously we’d go to the city and state to test, and we found out through research and Freedom of Information Act from Curt Guyette from the ACLU that they were falsifying their tests.”
Baseball hat: “Sure, I mean why [inaudible]”
Black hoodie: “So yeah, we have nobody, our trust is gone. We trust no one, so if somebody comes back and says ‘Your water’s safe’ there’s just no way we can believe it. In my house we have a copper service line, so we our tub water turns blue every morning, and that’s completely unsafe, it’s a neurotoxin. Lead sauter welds [inaudible] so everytime I see blue water I know that there’s lead in there, lead has no color. We also have aluminum, tin, and chromium in our water which are all neurotoxins.”
Baseball hat: “Lemme ask you a crazy question. Crazy question- like I said, we’re not here. What would it take to fix the problems? Cuz you’re here- this is ground- this is ground zero. You’re livin’ it everyday.”
Black hoodie: “Yes.”
Baseball hat: “What would it take- if, if money were no object- what would it take to fix the problem? Cuz we don’t know. Cuz we don’t live here.”
Black hoodie: “Replacing the pipes. The pipes were damaged by the caustic, untreated river water, and so that’s the only thing that’s gonna fix this, replacing the torn up pipes. Otherwise they’re gonna keep leeching the heavy metals into the water, and we’re gonna keep depending on people like you to-”
Baseball hat: “-That come from DC-”
Black hoodie: “Yeah, that come from DC and all across the country, to help us.”
[Top] Gina Reynolds, a University of Michigan Flint student majoring in social work, chants “clean water is a human right,” at cars passing by during a small protest Jan. 13
[Bottom] People bring water from their taps to show city officials at city meeting, Jan. 21
I made a post earlier about my city of Flint, Michigan’s water situation and I wanted to share this because our drinking water is literally making people and pets ill. I don’t want people to ignore this, I NEED people to know what’s going on here.
LeeAnne Walters, 36, of Flint shows water samples from her home to Flint emergency manager Jerry Ambrose on Wednesday after city and state officials spoke during a forum that addressed growing health concerns about the drinking water.
In a city where residents have felt under siege for years — from crime, bad press and an emergency manager some feel forced upon them — the newest threat pours from kitchen spigots and showerheads.
It’s the reason behind mysterious rashes on local children, parents say. Unexplained illnesses. Even sick pets.
Bethany Hazard said it’s the reason for the brown rust circles that began appearing just months ago around her drains and the oily film in her bathwater in her longtime east-side home.
On the west side of Flint, Corodon Maynard said it’s the reason he was bent retching violently over the toilet this month — just hours after chugging two glasses of water at bedtime.
“I was throwing up like bleach water. It came up through my nose burning,” said the 20-year-old.
The water from the city system is so corrosive, according to General Motors officials, that the automaker’s Flint Engine Operations pulled off the city water system, connecting instead into a water system operated by nearby Flint Township.
Adam Mays, an artist and Flint resident, protests the condition of the Flint water system at Fifth and Saginaw in Downtown Flint, Michigan, with a few handfuls of other protestors, Tuesday afternoon, January 13, 2015.
So what’s in Flint’s water and just how dangerous is it?
It depends on who you ask and what tests you’re referring to.
State tests suggest the water is clear of coliform bacteria, which can suggest the presence of other disease-carrying pathogens.
But as a result of treating the water to kill any dangerous microorganisms, the water now carries low levels of Total Trihalomethane, or TTHM, a by-product of the disinfectants. Years of exposure may cause liver, kidney or central nervous system problems and an increased risk of cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The city maintains the water — pulled from the Flint River rather than the Detroit water system that had served the city for years —is safe.
Mayor Dayne Walling who was born and raised in Flint, said he drinks it.
The river, long known for the toxins left from Flint’s industrial years, is cleaner than it has been in years, “but that perception persists,” Walling said.
Flint resident Gladyes Williamson-Bunnell asks officials addressing issues with the water quality if they would drink some of the Flint water she held up in a gallon jug during the water meeting on Wednesday evening, Jan. 21, 2015, at the Flint City Hall dome in downtown Flint.
“I’ve taken to calling it ‘poop water,’ ” said Nayyirah Shariff, a community activist for the grassroots group Democracy Defense League.
Many said they are ready to abandon longtime homes.
“What we have is a full-blown crisis,” said GM retiree Claire McClinton who had bundled up against the snow earlier this week to run into El Potrero Mexican restaurant for a late lunch.
But she reconsidered at the last minute and walked out instead, worried about eating at restaurants that rely on city water in their kitchens.
She’s not the only customer who is concerned.
Business overall has been hit “probably 20 to 30%,” said manager Jorge Alcazar.
The restaurant’s lifeblood is in customers seeking a quick, affordable lunch, often with a glass of ice water.
Unwilling to drink the tap water, customers also don’t want to pay $2 or more for a pop or buy a bottled water.
Worse for waitress Ashley Trujillo, customers have argued with staff. One customer left three pennies as a tip after fuming about having to pay for water. Others have left nothing.
“Like we have something to do with it,” Trujillo said.
All of this — the frustration, the slump in El Potrero’s business, the jam-packed meetings with residents toting jugs of brown water and claims they are being poisoned — are the latest blows to a city that has felt swatted around for too long.
“People think all the crime happens in Flint and everyone is poor in Flint, so there’s this stigma. Now we’re fighting against dirty water. Really?” said radiology coder Cindy Marshall, who joined about two dozen protesters earlier this week.
“Are you trying to kill us?” read one sign. “No more poison,” read another.
McClinton echoed Marshall’s sentiments: “We’ve lost confidence in the city.”
A protestor holds a sign out for cars to see during the protest of the conditions of the Flint water system at Fifth and Saginaw in Downtown Flint, Michigan, Tuesday afternoon, January 13, 2015.
Soaring bills.
For years, residents in this city bleeding jobs and soaked in red ink have been facing growing water bills. Some have climbed as high as several hundred dollars a month.
“We have residents choosing between water and groceries and other bills,” said Hazard, whose own bill is about $100 a month for a single person.
“I feel like I’m going under,” said Hazard, who survived cancer twice and who was forced into early retirement and limited income.
The city eventually decided to dump the Detroit system in favor of the Karegnondi Water Authority, which is building a system to supply Genesee County with water pulled from Lake Huron. In the long run, this will mean lower water costs, officials have said.
Under the plan, Flint is temporarily pulling water from the Flint River until the water authority’s system comes online, expected in 2016.
In August and September, however, the city issued three advisories to boil the water after detecting coliform bacteria.
Just before Christmas, residents received notices that state tests indicated higher-than-acceptable levels of trihalomethane, the disinfectant by-product.
Hazard’s cats have been sick. So has she and several neighbors. Even her houseplant began to die.
Maynard threw up. Residents complained of rashes and mysterious illnesses.
“We just want safe water. How hard is that?” Hazard asked.
But assurances come with qualifiers.
The chlorine did its job and cleaned the water of microbial pathogens that can cause disease within days. That means the water is safe for healthy people to drink for a short time, said Michael Prysby, a district engineer in the state’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance.
But the trade-off was TTMH — possibly a danger for the very young, the very old, or the very sick if they ingest it long-term, he added.
People with prolonged exposure to TTMH may experience problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system and have an increased risk of getting cancer.
“But we’re talking decades,” he said, adding that those who are worried should talk to their doctors.
“We don’t want to make a blanket statement to say water is safe or unsafe. It’s misleading both ways.”
That’s the kind of answer that infuriates Marshall, the protester and mother of a 5-year-old.
“They said it’s safe, but it’s brown water,” said Marshall, also a radiology coder, after the meeting. “Why do we have to drink brown water? No one else has to drink brown water.”
So, it's been about 9 months and the water has not gotten any better. As a matter of fact, it’s worse now. Here’s a picture taken just a few hours ago.
From the Facebook post associated with this picture “This fire hydrant in Flint, Michigan has been “flushing” for over 5-hours… after 5-hours, that’s not flushing… that is the water quality in Flint. ”
Fire hydrants carry CLEAN, TREATED water. This is our “clean and treated water”. This is the water that we have to drink.
And that’s not all. Water tests have been conducted in the last few days and in every district they checked, the amount of sites with over 15ppb of lead in the water has either gone up or stayed the same. You can see the results here at http://flintwaterstudy.org
The lead content in Flint children’s blood has spiked in the past year.
In perhaps the most dramatic proof yet of the toxic impact of Flint’s decision to draw municipal water from the Flint River, a new study released today shows that the amount of lead found in the bloodstream of Flint children increased dramatically following the switch from the Detroit water system in 2014.
The results — which are based on blood samples drawn from 1,746 children ages 5 and younger — were even more frightening in Flint neighborhoods where Virginia Tech researchers testing water from nearly 300 homes found the highest levels of lead in the city’s water. Analysis of blood samples from children living in those same high-risk areas showed that the number of kids with elevated levels of lead in their blood jumped from 2.5 percent to 6.3 percent.
The following statement was released by Congressman Dan Kildee earlier today:
“This new study showing elevated blood lead levels among Flint’s children is very troubling. People have the right to have confidence that their drinking water is safe.
Immediate action needs to be taken by the State of Michigan to ensure that relief is provided to people who are concerned about lead levels in their water. Today as part of my ongoing efforts, I talked with the EPA Region 5 Administrator about the State of Michigan providing emergency assistance, including lead-clearing filters and bottled water, until a more permanent solution can be determined.
This new study by the medical community also raises additional doubts about prior water testing done by the DEQ and EPA that stated the water was in compliance with federal law. I have been completely unsatisfied with their answers to my questions regarding their testing methodology, which is why I have called for additional immediate independent and scientific testing to be done.”
Today I was out walking my dog in East Grand Rapids and this man pulled up and started taking pictures of me. I told him to delete every picture he took of me and he refused and said it was “public domain” to which I respond, “I am not public domain.” He continued on to dig in his wallet while I took pictures of his license plate and tried to lure me closer to his car with a little card he said was his business card but the text was handwritten (like seriously? Come on). I started screaming for him to delete every picture so everyone in the neighborhood and probably the next galaxy could hear and after much heated arguing he finally deleted them. As I’m running away he screamed “you got a nice set of tits and pussy,” (again, seriously?) at me all the way down the street. So I get home and call the police because I’m an idiot and was hoping maybe someone could help keep this creep off the streets (batman and I aren’t talking anymore). The operator briskly and coldly let me know that he was completely in the right and that regardless of consent, if you’re on public property, people can take pictures of you. She also informed me that his comments were also fine because its free expression. So since the police have refused to take action, I’m posting this here and on Facebook so people know there’s some Wilford Brimley looking motherfucker roaming Grand Rapids taking pictures of girls on the streets.
Find this fucker and string him from a tree.
I’m 100% sure this is the same motherfucker I kicked out of my club two weeks ago for taking pictures of the girls. He put up a fight and said “if they didn’t want pictures taken they wouldn’t be wearing what they are.” He didn’t delete them until I gave him an ultimatum: delete them or leave in an ambulance. Slash his tires, vandalize his house, idgaf.
Please be careful, ladies. He is not a nice man.
Ew wtf all my girls in Michigan remember this guy’s face. Fucking scumbag
Signal boosting so people can avoid this scumbag
oh my god
As a person from California, this is 100% accurate
As a person from Michigan, this is 100% accurate
As a person from England I was so confused because I forgot you use the Fahrenheit system
50 degrees in England
100 degrees in England
I don’t know why I found the skeletons so funny, it’s almost like they’re dancing really sarcastically?
they’re british skeletons of course they’re dancing sarcastically.
