tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133414672024-03-06T23:13:42.270-05:00B A N C Oblack autonomy network community organization
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<b>working for economic and social justice in Benton Harbor, MI</b>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comBlogger1660125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-35133087459853640272024-02-13T12:44:00.000-05:002024-02-13T12:44:22.412-05:00Racism against 12 year old girl in St. Joe, Mich. school, teachers laugh<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Palatino; font-size: 17px;">Please read this below. We are planning a protest to support our children and community. Please join us Tuesday at 9:30am. Anyone reading this can call the school principal, Amy Roth, 269-983-3056 to file a complaint. Why is racism tolerated in your school? A religious school? Etc.</span></p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":sq"><div aria-controls=":v0" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":v0" class="Am aiL Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":sm" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 309px;" tabindex="1"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: white; font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 17px;"><p style="color: black; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 29px;">all</span></p><p style="color: black; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rev Pinkney<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="color: black; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23px;"><br /></p></div><div align="left" dir="auto" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 17px;"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Timothy Eddie <<a>timothy.eddie@hotmail.com</a>><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div>Date: 2/12/24 8:51 PM (GMT-05:00)<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div>To:<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>wsbtnews@wsbt.com</a>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>16NewsNow@wndu.com</a>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>16MorningNewsNow@wndu.com</a>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>desk@wwmt.com</a>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>jswidwa@thehp.com</a>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>jknot@thehp.com</a>,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>news@bentonspiritnews.com</a></div><div>Cc:<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a>banco9342@sbcglobal.net</a></div><div>Subject: Upcoming Protest<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div><br /></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: white; font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 17px;"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color: #212121; font-size: inherit;">On Tuesday 2/20/2024 a protest will be held at Trinity Lutheran School in St Joseph Michigan. This will be led by the family, friends, supporters, and community activists such as Ed Pinkney. Please read more information below as to why the family is protesting against racism and bullying at this school. The staff and principal are aware and nothing has been done and the victims parents have yet to receive an update. We would like news agencies to come and provide coverage of the protest.</span></div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="color: #212121; font-size: inherit;">A </span><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">12-year-old family member of mine attends this school and was told “you blend in with this brown marker,” even though she’s a similar complexion as her bullies. Then she was called an N word and the teacher and staff did nothing so far. The bully is the child of one of the teachers, so I’m sure that’s why it’s being swept under the rug. There was another incident in which 4 boys surrounded her and made whipping sounds and said “get back to work” making fun of Black History Month. There was another incident in which Zachariah threw her books on the floor in front of Mrs Alison Jakubs. Mrs Jakubs then had her write a sentence during help with English that said, “Zachariah threw Aubree’s books on the floor.” My cousin Aubree Windmon was mortified. Amy Roth is aware and does nothing. The nepotism, racism, and covering up for each others children must stop. This victims parents pay to attend this school. No scholarship, no handouts, and this is what your hard earned money gets you in 2024. We want accountability. Her father Aaron Windmon can be reached at </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 120, 212); font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #0078d4;">423-208-8733</span></span></div></div></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-49603063835078439012024-01-15T18:23:00.000-05:002024-01-15T18:23:15.431-05:00The Struggle in Benton Harbor<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiqJSNHMlO_fDDlWUNKMDlHjQstK_ZiE_-ub5dj4ThmM0ItJdV3RmTsBHuodYZR6QAd8qSMb-joFsHFLgD-AuvGyKB4Q04pVsREEABHCcDEJWWA0hB1x-OHMydRi3xAyjYbG5xMpG6RL_GGiFU27srPX-hgW5POerfbABDBX6lak3OrCDUsDAjA/s669/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="479" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiqJSNHMlO_fDDlWUNKMDlHjQstK_ZiE_-ub5dj4ThmM0ItJdV3RmTsBHuodYZR6QAd8qSMb-joFsHFLgD-AuvGyKB4Q04pVsREEABHCcDEJWWA0hB1x-OHMydRi3xAyjYbG5xMpG6RL_GGiFU27srPX-hgW5POerfbABDBX6lak3OrCDUsDAjA/s16000/Untitled.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-84402618895676395472023-12-30T10:23:00.002-05:002023-12-30T10:24:18.047-05:00Mayor Marcus Muhammad Did Nothing to Save Benton Harbor Residents from Lead<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Despite knowing that lead was common in the Benton Harbor water distribution system, Mayor Marcus Muhammad did nothing. This was a crime against residents.</span></p><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">In 2018, as a system serving less than 50,000 residents, Benton Harbor was not required to implement corrosion control treatment until it exceeded the lead action level. Nevertheless, the common presence of lead in the system made Benton Harbor a ticking time bomb. The question was not <u>whether</u> it would exceed the lead action level, but <u>when</u>. Mayor Muhammad did nothing and now has blood</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">on his hands. We have no idea how many residents may have died from kidney, liver, or heart disease, or brain damage due to water contamination. <br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">While the Benton Harbor 2018 survey conducted by EGLE identified lead as a potential</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">issue, it did not provide recommendations aimed at ensuring Benton Harbor was proactively addressing the problem. It stated that the presence of lead in the distribution</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">system is notable and that the majority of service lines contained lead. Regarding corrosion control treatment, the sanitary survey recommended that the Mayor continue to optimize the treatment system and the distribution system operation to minimize lead releases, but failed to note that the city was not utilizing any treatment to prevent the corrosion of lead pipes at the time. </div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Once the Benton Harbor water system was required to implement a corrosion control treatment after it exceeded the lead action level, the process for selecting and implementing corrosion control treatment ran afoul of the EPA guidance. When a system that is not utilizing any corrosion control treatment exceeds the lead, the State must make a choice.</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">It must either designate optimal corrosion control treatment or require the local water system to conduct a study to gather more information before it designates the optimal corrosion control treatment.</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">The EPA has issued guidance to assist states with making decisions. Relevant to Benton Harbor, that guidance recommends the following:</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">If the water system has lead service lines, the state should require the water system to conduct a corrosion control study. Water system seeking to utilize blending phosphates as a corrosion control treatment should do so with caution and, if used, states should require a demonstration study of additional monitoring, or both.</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">In Benton Harbor, the Mayor and EGLE failed to follow the EPA Guidance highlighted above both in regards to the corrosion control study and implementation of the corrosion control treatment.</div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">We must confront local, state, and federal government. The Benton Harbor Community Water Council became a whistleblower, with threats from Mayor Marcus Muhammad and Governor Whitmer. They were forced to provide clean safe water to Benton Harbor. We must replace evil with good. It's all about the people. Let's save the people. <br /></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="ydp2bfd932dsignature" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><div> </div><div>Rev Edward Pinkney</div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-35000017497489686362023-12-27T08:47:00.008-05:002023-12-27T08:47:38.135-05:00Mayor Marcus Muhammad failed the residents of Benton Harbor/Drinking water crisis<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A petition was filed on September 9, 2021 to the US Environmental Protection Agency by Rev Edward Pinkney, Benton Harbor Community Water Council, and a group of local and state drinking water advocates. They put a spot light on the lead contamination in Benton Harbor's drinking water system. The issues with Benton Harbor's system ran deep and the warning signs for drinking the water crisis were obvious as early as 2018. However, it took the united community voice of the Benton Harbor Community Water Council and the support of many partners to ensure that Mayor Marcus Muhammad, Gov. Whitmer, and the EPA would take action on this chronic public health issue. This included a petition filed by myself and the BH Community Water Council to force quicker action.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In 2018, a sanitary survey conducted by the agency then know as the Department of Environmental Quality identified 10 significant deficiencies in the Benton Harbor water system. The survey identified significant issues with the water treatment system, the distribution system, system management and operations, and financial shortfalls. Notable, the sanitary survey did not highlight lead contamination as the primary concern and it's recommendation for minimizing lead risk was not given a high priority. The state tested 51 homes and 35 to 37 were above 15ppb, which is the action level. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">After Benton Harbor's water system exceeded the lead action levels for the first time in the fall of 2018, the governmental response lacked the urgency the crisis clearly called for and was characterized by a focus on the technical and bureaucratic of drinking water regulation rather than the big picture: the protection of public health, the protection of the residents, the protection of the city. What happened in Benton Harbor should not happen to any other city or town in America. It is up to the people, we must confront local, state and federal governments to make sure this never, ever happens again. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Rev Edward Pinkney</span></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-39787741916822771242023-12-20T12:06:00.003-05:002023-12-30T10:27:48.657-05:00Mayor Marcus Muhammad the Killer Mayor. Also, Benton Harbor racial disparity statistics<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mayor Marcus Muhammad failed the residents of Benton Harbor. He did not notify them of the lead and bacterial contamination of their water. The law states officials MUST notify residents by mail and he failed to do so.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With state and federal drinking laws in place, Benton Harbor continued to have high lead levels well into 2022. Why then do we not have a single agency taking responsibility for the crisis, and why did it take so long for Benton Harbor?</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lead destroys the liver, kidneys, heart, brain, and body. We have no idea how many Benton Harbor residents died during and since the water crisis from the contaminated water. Again, and it cannot be said often enough, Mayor Muhammad should have notified the residents of Benton Harbor of the damager of drinking contaminated water.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At its core, the lead crisis in Benton Harbor is the result of racial discrimination and segregation, the familiar phenomenon of white fight, and misguided decision by Mayor Muhammad.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The story of Benton Harbor's Black population is a familiar one throughout the midwest in the1960’s. As Benton Harbor’s Black population rapidly grew, its white population declined just as rapidly. Benton Harbor's white population decreased from 14,290 in 1960 to just 6,707 in 1970 - more than a 50% decrease. During the same time, Benton Harbor's Black population increased from 4,846 to 9,774.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Black residents coming to Benton Harbor faced discrimination in multiple ways. </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In housing, the Benton Harbor Housing Commission segregated public housing by operating one housing project for Black residents and another for white residents. It also refused admission of Black veterans to its veteran housing project solely on the basis of race. </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Racial segregation in schools was also very prevalent throughout Benton Harbor and the surrounding region. Eventually, many of Benton Harbor's white residents segregated themselves from the city and its increasing Black population by moving to other nearby communities.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The history of segregation in the Benton Harbor region persists to this day. The Niles-Benton Harbor metro area has been ranked as the fifth most segregated metro area in the country. The region continues to have some of the most segregated public school systems in the country. It has one of the worst disparities regarding high school attainment, with an attainment rate of 92.1% for majority-white neighborhoods and only 72.4% for majority-Black neighborhoods.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mayor Muhammad surly failed the residents of Benton Harbor, no community should have to worry about whether their water is safe to drink. I am not sure today if the water is safe to drink. . . </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rev Edward Pinkney</p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-23466002396777541342023-12-16T19:42:00.002-05:002023-12-20T11:48:22.014-05:00The Water Crisis in Benton Harbor / Benton Harbor Community Water Council are the real Heros<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>The Struggle that has taken place in recent years in Benton Harbor is a case in point, and one that holds </span>a number of lessons for the American people. The fight in Benton Harbor is a war over whether Benton Harbor residents will have prosperity, democracy, live in poverty or have clean, safe water under heels of open corporate rule. The attack on democracy in Benton Harbor shows that corporate power structure is determined to crush anyone who stands in its way. I would like to thank the Benton Harbor Community Water Council for the incredible work that was done to get Benton Harbor clean safe water, without applying continue pressure on the State and Federal government nothing would have been done. It took three long years for government and the Mayor to acknowledge their was a water crisis. No victory lap here.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 8px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>The drinking water crisis in Benton Harbor has upended the lives of thousands of residents and created an </span>environment and public health disaster that after years of inaction, finally captured the nation's attention. While dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water system garnered national headlines, the drinking water crisis ran much deeper and involved violations of several safe drinking water regulations.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 8px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>The cause of this multi-faceted drinking water crisis was decades in the making and has its roots in racial discrimination </span>and segregation that has plagued Benton Harbor since the mid-20th century. The loss of Benton Harbor water system's customer base has been at the root of many of its problems, first through flight of the white residents in the 1970's as the Benton Harbor's black population was growing and then through the loss of whole wholesale and industrial customers during the era of emergency management. With too few residents and customers to serve, the water system has struggle to generate revenue causing cuts to the water system's staff and budget. This, in turn has caused a wide variety of water quality and </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>treatment issues that go beyond the lead contamination.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 8px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>Thanks to the tireless faces of the Benton Harbor Community Water Council and Rev Edward Pinkney, Benton Harbor's water </span>system is now providing safe water to its residents -something it hasn't done for years .All the lead service lines- has been replaced.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 8px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>But now Benton Harbor faces another pending drinking water crisis, the water , now safe to drink, is unaffordable for its residents. Even </span><span>with grant funds to cover capital cost at the water treatment plant and to replace lead service lines, a recent report found that Benton </span><span>Harbor must raise water rates over 205 annually for the next nine years to ensure the water system covers its costs. if this occurs, it is </span><span>estimated that the average residential water bill will increase from $42 per month to $272 per month. What is good is safe drinking water </span><span>if residents cannot afford it?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 8px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>What happened in Benton Harbor should never ever happen to another Community, another City, another town, never ever. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span>Rev Edward Pinkney</span></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-52288835720942630612023-11-04T08:47:00.001-04:002023-11-04T08:47:26.078-04:00Charges against Rick Snyder dismissed...<p> <a class="Link" data-cms-ai="0" href="https://www.michiganradio.org/commentary" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7rem; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Commentary</a></p><h1 class="ArtP-headline" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: var(--headline-1); line-height: 1.18; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Auchter's Art: What's the correlation?</h1><h1 class="ArtP-headline" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: var(--headline-1); line-height: 1.18; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: var(--secC1); font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7rem;">Michigan Radio | By</span><span style="color: var(--secC1); font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7rem;"> </span><a aria-label="John Auchter" class="Link" data-cms-ai="0" href="https://www.michiganradio.org/people/john-auchter" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--linkColor); font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 1.7rem; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;">John Auchter</a></h1><div>November 3, 2023</div><div class="ArtP-contentInfo" style="align-items: center; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Oxygen, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 18px; justify-content: space-between;"><div class="ArtP-byline" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; flex-wrap: nowrap; flex: 1 1 0%; font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; 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font-size: 18px;"><source data-size="fallbackImageSizeMobile" data-srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ee4082a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/840x612!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png 2x" height="306" media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ee4082a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/840x612!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png 2x" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;" type="image/webp" width="420"></source><source data-size="fallbackImageSizeMobile" data-srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/55c196c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/420x306!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png" height="306" media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/55c196c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/420x306!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; 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box-sizing: border-box;" width="880"></source><img alt="A six frame cartoon of two politicians talking about trust following the Flint Water Crisis" class="Image" data-src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/149d875/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/880x642!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png" height="642" src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/149d875/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/880x642!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png" srcset="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9a977ef/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2396x1747+0+0/resize/1760x1284!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fdc%2F4cd03d344614b0c8cdc636cd8985%2Fjpa418-meanwhile-in-lansing.png 2x" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="880" /></picture><div class="Figure-content" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="Figure-credit-container" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: flex-end;"><div class="Figure-credit" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--secondaryTextColor); font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.27; margin: 5px 0px; text-align: right; text-transform: capitalize;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">John Auchter</span></div><div class="Figure-divider" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--secondaryTextColor); font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.27; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: right; text-transform: capitalize;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">/</span></div><div class="Figure-source" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--secondaryTextColor); font-family: var(--secHlFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.27; margin: 5px 0px; text-align: right; text-transform: capitalize;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For Michigan Radio </span></div></div></div></figure></div><div class="ArtP-articleContainer" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Oxygen, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";"><div class="ArtP-articleBody" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--primaryTextColor); font-family: var(--bodyFont),Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px auto; max-width: 700px;">State criminal prosecutions of the Flint Water Crisis ended this week with <a class="Link" data-cms-ai="0" href="https://www.michiganradio.org/criminal-justice-legal-system/2023-10-31/ag-flint-water-prosecutions-ended-following-mi-supreme-court-decision" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--linkColor); text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" target="_blank">a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court refusing the state’s appeal of lower-court decisions</a> to dismiss charges against former Governor Rick Snyder. It marks the end of a chapter in a very sad book.</p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px auto; max-width: 700px;">Wherever you happen to stand on holding accountable the public officials who put Flint under state-appointed emergency management, I think we can all agree that the optics (not to mention the results) were terrible. And we can add this as a lesson learned — next time rich, "successful" businessmen tell us that they are better than career politicians because (1) they get things done and (2) they take responsibility, maybe we don't believe them.</p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px auto; max-width: 700px;">For the record, I don't think how our state government handled the Flint Water Crisis is the only reason why Michigan population is stagnated. But it certainly hasn't helped. When you're a place that gets several inches of snow on Halloween, you already have enough challenges to keep and attract people.</p><p style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px auto; max-width: 700px;"><i style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box;">John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.</i></p></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-36330840397631766812023-03-21T17:09:00.002-04:002023-03-21T17:18:17.691-04:00Slap in the face of humanity: Cop City - Atlanta<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWC_7qs2_eMDvISF35rwZS5dLKxkxJMtooTVvk16QZyMe8UhIxA6blNem7RbtP00pX7IzKSBN2gUgyLXhzazhUhG1YYy8k1c9yby-6cjFh0WFlAd11gle1cPwhbJzCQJ9g3mEL7oyRla7JwcmNXSoFSgUz5axWfPW7JCLp3iTDDTlL7T77aW0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="1140" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWC_7qs2_eMDvISF35rwZS5dLKxkxJMtooTVvk16QZyMe8UhIxA6blNem7RbtP00pX7IzKSBN2gUgyLXhzazhUhG1YYy8k1c9yby-6cjFh0WFlAd11gle1cPwhbJzCQJ9g3mEL7oyRla7JwcmNXSoFSgUz5axWfPW7JCLp3iTDDTlL7T77aW0" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="vb-outer" id="ko_imageBlock_2" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(145, 145, 145); color: #919191; min-width: 0px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" class="vb-outer" style="min-width: 0px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px;" valign="top"><div class="oldwebkit" style="max-width: 570px;"><table align="center" bgcolor="#000000" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="vb-container fullwidth" style="background-color: black; max-width: 570px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 570px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top"></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table bgcolor="#000000" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="vb-outer" id="ko_titleBlock_4" style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(145, 145, 145); color: #919191; min-width: 0px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" class="vb-outer" style="min-width: 0px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px;" valign="top"><div class="oldwebkit" style="max-width: 570px;"><table bgcolor="#000000" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="9" class="vb-container halfpad" style="border-spacing: 9px; max-width: 570px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px; width: 570px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; text-align: center;"><strong>Keep the solidarity going: how to support the movement to #StopCopCity</strong></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="vb-outer" id="ko_textBlock_1" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(145, 145, 145); color: #919191; min-width: 0px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="vb-outer" style="min-width: 0px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px;" valign="top"><div class="oldwebkit" style="max-width: 570px;"><br /><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="18" class="vb-container fullpad" style="border-spacing: 18px; max-width: 570px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 570px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" class="long-text links-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;">As our allies in Atlanta keep fighting for community safety, we urge you to continue supporting their struggle to halt the construction of Cop City, a police training facility that threatens large swaths of the Weelaunee Forest and would massively expand militarized policing in Atlanta and elsewhere.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;">At critical moments such as this one, it’s important to remember that local battles are part of our collective struggle for freedom from policing and mass incarceration. At the same time, those of us not in and/or from Atlanta must follow the leadership of the people on the ground, who know their community’s needs best.</p><p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px;">Please read on for ways to offer and sustain solidarity for the movement to Stop Cop City!</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="vb-outer" id="ko_hrBlock_2" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(145, 145, 145); color: #919191; min-width: 0px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="vb-outer" style="min-width: 0px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px;" valign="top"><div class="oldwebkit" style="max-width: 570px;"><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="9" class="vb-container halfpad" style="border-spacing: 9px; max-width: 570px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px; width: 570px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td height="1" style="background-color: #3f3f3f; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; width: 534px;" width="100%"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="vb-outer" id="ko_textBlock_2" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(145, 145, 145); color: #919191; min-width: 0px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="vb-outer" style="min-width: 0px; padding-left: 9px; padding-right: 9px;" valign="top"><div class="oldwebkit" style="max-width: 570px;"><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="18" class="vb-container fullpad" style="border-spacing: 18px; max-width: 570px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; width: 570px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" class="long-text links-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><ul><li><strong>Tell Georgia prosecutors to drop the domestic terrorism charges</strong> against Stop Cop City protesters, <a href="https://rightsanddissent.salsalabs.org/stopcopcity/index.html" style="color: #76923c;">using this action toolkit from Defending Rights & Dissent</a><br /></li><li><strong>Send emails and make phone calls</strong> to Georgia officials and the Cop City contractors, <a href="https://www.stopcopcitysolidarity.org/callnow" style="color: #76923c;">using this script and contact sheet from Stop Cop City Solidarity</a><br /></li><li><strong>Support</strong> <a href="https://communitymovementbuilders.org/" style="color: #76923c;">Community Movement Builders</a>, <a href="https://blackallianceforpeace.com/" style="color: #76923c;">Black Alliance for Peace – Atlanta</a>, the <a href="https://atlsolidarity.org/" style="color: #76923c;">Atlanta Solidarity Fund</a>, and other local movement leaders<br /></li><li><span data-mce-bogus="true" id="_mce_caret"><strong>Take action</strong><span data-mce-bogus="true" id="_mce_caret"> and voice your disapproval to the politicians, contractors, and investors driving Cop City, <a href="https://www.stopcopcitysolidarity.org/takeaction" style="color: #76923c;">using this action support toolkit from Stop Cop City Solidarity</a></span></span><br data-mce-bogus="1" /></li><li><strong>Read and share the </strong><a href="https://www.rightsanddissent.org/news/66-organizations-urge-that-domestic-terrorism-charges-against-defend-the-atlanta-forest-protesters-be-dropped/" style="color: #76923c;"><strong>coalition letter</strong> from Defending Rights & Dissent</a>, signed by the NLG, Civil Liberties Defense Center, Project South, Human Rights Watch, and other allies <br /></li><li><strong>Sign onto </strong><a href="https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/solidarity/" style="color: #76923c;"><strong>the letter</strong> in solidarity with the movement to Stop Cop City</a><br /></li><li>Learn more about the struggle against policing by engaging with the following resources:<br /></li><ul><li>[Webinar Recording] <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWwJkxxMuhQ" style="color: #76923c;">The Abolitionist Struggle to Stop Cop City: History, Geography, Intersections</a></strong> by Haymarket Books<br /></li><li>[Webpage] <strong><a href="https://www.stopcopcitysolidarity.org/about" style="color: #76923c;">About the Movement to Stop Cop City</a></strong> by Stop Cop City Solidarity<br /></li><li>[Article]<strong><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63cf128aee213f29be01b531/t/63d1aae7ba13e760bb300c72/1674685162740/OAPF-history-zine.pdf" style="color: #76923c;"> A brief history of the Atlanta City Prison Farm</a></strong> by the Atlanta Community Press Collective, explaining the long history of stealing land from the Muscogee people in what is now Atlanta<br /></li><li>[Book] <strong><em><a href="https://www.nlg.org/nlg-book-club-no-more-police-by-mariame-kaba-and-andrea-ritchie/" style="color: #76923c;">No More Police</a></em></strong> by Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie</li></ul></ul><div><br /></div><div>National Lawyers Guild</div><div>PO Box 1266</div><div>New York, NY 10009-8941</div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-54026419490218533792023-01-06T18:58:00.000-05:002023-01-06T18:58:29.138-05:00Benton Harbor ARPA funding - Has fraud been committed?<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Rev. Pinkney found a media report listing recipients of Benton Harbor’s $9.8 million ARPA funds. The city filed the lists (see the end for the most recent list)</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">on 4/19/21 and 4/20/22. American Rescue Plan Act distributes federal</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">money to municipalities to aid Americans in covid recovery. At least that's the stated purpose. </span></p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":12z"><div aria-controls=":15p" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":15p" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":12v" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 240px;" tabindex="1"><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">The problem is, there is no evidence or record of ARPA grants or funding<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in the Benton Harbor community.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rev. Pinkney believes the city has acted illegally in four ways:</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">- Bank Fraud</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">- False Statement to a Financial Institution</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">- Money Laundering</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">- Fraud Scheme</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By filing the list below, the city states to the federal gov. that everything on<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>the list is true. Pinkney does not believe the list is correct and true,<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>so therefore, Wire Fraud has also been committed.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He wants the city to supply the following information:</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>1.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Why were there no ARPA funding community meetings?<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No community discussion? Other towns included residents in the funding decisions.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>2.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Was there a vote on the list below?</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>3.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Who in Benton Harbor has the authority to assign the massive figure of one and a half million dollars to anybody? </p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The amount itself definitely warrants a discussion among residents!</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Benton Harbor residents reading this list will most likely question it's veracity.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Residents relief <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>1,560, 000. (million!)</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Renter assistance<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>500,000. <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Utilities<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>500,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Internet access. <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>30,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Neighborhood improvement<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Vacant Lot clean up<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>150,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Park Safety improvements<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>350.000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Block Club<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>40,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Youth Employment <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>200,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Camera System<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>250,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Fire Hydrants <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>75,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Water& Sewer<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>1,200, 000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Non profit- Small Business loans <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>112, 882.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Church internet<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>30,000.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Community Garden <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>12,882.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Income tax <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>250,000.</p></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-63283652522139447842022-11-25T16:04:00.000-05:002022-11-25T16:04:03.613-05:00Where is the public engagement and government transparency in Benton Harbor?<p> <span style="font-family: Palatino;">November 21, 2022</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><br /></span></p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":oi"><div aria-controls=":xp" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":xp" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":om" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 244px;" tabindex="1"><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ms. Tiffany Moore</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Chief Clerk</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Benton Harbor City Hall</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">200 E. Wall Street</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Benton Harbor, MI 49022</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">RE: Immediate Request for Extension of Comment Period and for a Public Hearing Regarding the City of Benton Harbor Water System Alternatives Analysis</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dear Ms. Moore:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We, the community leaders and residents of Benton Harbor, in partnership with the other undersigned organizations (collectively, the "Signatories"), request an immediate extension of the public comment period for the City of Benton Harbor (the "City") Water System Alternatives Analysis (the "Report) and request a public hearing to ensure that the residents of Benton Harbor both fully understand the Report and have an opportunity to have their voices heard!</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Unilateral Administrative Order (the "Order") dated November 2, 2022, very clearly mandates that the City provide a substantial public comment period that lasts at least 30 days, and requires receipt, review, and acknowledgement of all public comments.? The minimal 30-day review period chosen by the City includes the Thanksgiving holiday, ultimately reducing the amount of available time for the public to review and respond to the 156-page Report. Furthermore, the City failed to schedule a public meeting to explain the contents of this complex and lengthy Report. The proposed comment period and comment process do not provide sufficient notice or opportunity for the public to understand, let alone meaningfully comment, on the Report. Sadly, this approach is consistent with the City's past processes of failing to provide the residents of Benton Harbor with</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">accurate and up-to-date information about the quality of their water and the potential future of their water system. Indeed, we understand that as of November 2022, City officials are currently telling residents that the water is safe to drink when, in fact, filters are still required for a minimum of six months to ensure that the drinking water is free from lead contamination.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Signatories also request additional information relating to the public water systems's existing debt and corresponding cost calculations. Similar to the lack of transparency of the public comment period and process, there is also a lack of transparency regarding the cost estimates in Table ES-1 in the Report. Table ES-1 is premised on a certain amount of debt that the City claims to have; yet this information is not included in the Report. This is a key piece of information that</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">________________________________</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">1 The Signatories reserve the right to submit comments to this City in addition to this letter.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2 Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, Unilateral Administrative Order, 1111 (Nov. 2, 2021).</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">would help residents of Benton Harbor understand the financial analysis in the Report. We strongly request the City make this information publicly available during the comment period and prior to a public hearing.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hosting public hearings is standard procedure when local agencies seek public comment. Hearings give the public the opportunity to share their opinion, ask questions, and make their voices heard. They enable comments to be submitted in both a written and oral format. Not all residents may have the time or technology to submit a formal written comment and may instead choose to give comments orally, on the record. Given the complexity of this particular report, and the need for accessibility for submitting public comments, the residents should have the opportunity to submit comments orally at a public hearing. During the hearing, the City should take the time to clearly</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">outline the contents of the Report and accept all oral public comments. These public comments should become part of the record of comments that the City is required to review and address under Paragraph 111 of the Order before submission of the comments to EPA.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For the reasons described above, it is imperative that the City extend the public comment period by at least another 30 days, to January 2, 2022, to give the public time to review, understand, and provide meaningful comments - both written and oral - on the Report. We also strongly request that the City host a formal public hearing in advance of the due date of public comments to both: (1) further describe the contents of the Report to the public; and (2) give Benton Harbor residents an</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">opportunity to provide oral comments on the Report. The Signatories reserve the right to submit any additional comments and requests, as necessary.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Given the very tight deadlines and impending Thanksgiving holiday, we request a response before November 23, 2022 on these requests. Please reach out to Reverend Edward Pinkney at (269) 369-8257 with any questions, and please provide your response in writing by email.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sincerely,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Reverend Edward Pinkney, President, Benton Harbor Community Water Council</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gwen Swanigan, Founder/CEO, S.H.A.R.P. Foundation</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dr. Donald Tynes, Public Health Director, Benton Harbor Health Center</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Emma Kinnard, President & Marvin Heywood, Vice President, Fresh Start Children's Garden</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Alvin Gray, President, Black is Beautiful and Save Our Children,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Blake William, President, Get Out the Vote</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Elnora Gavin, We the People Michigan</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">People's Choice, Doris Mitchell, President</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">_____________________</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">3 Not all residents are able to submit a written comment for various reasons, such as limited access to the internet, limited written English proficiency, or simply that they prefer oral communication to written communication.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Supporting partners:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ecology Center, Rebecca Meuninck, Deputy Director</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, Mona Monroe-Younis, Executive Director</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Flint Rising, Nayyirah Shariff, Executive Director</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For Love of Water (FLOW), Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, Nicholas Leonard, Executive Director</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lawyers for Good Government, Jillian Blanchard, Director Climate Change Program & Lauren</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thomson, Staff Attorney</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Michigan Environmental Council, Conan Smith, President and CEO</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Sylvia Orduño, Organizer</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Natural Resources Defense Council, Cyndi Roper, Senior Policy Advocate</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">People's Water Board Coalition, Nicole Hill, Vice President</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Safe Water Engineering, Eli Betanzo, Principal</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Water You Fighting For, Melissa Mays, Founder</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 25px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">CC:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Debra Shore, Regional Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">("USEPA") Region 5</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Radhika Fox, Assistant Administrator, Office of Water, USEPA</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Tera Fong, Director, Water Division, USEPA Region 5</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Candice Bauer, Water Division, Chief, Ground Water and Drinking Water, USEPA Region 5</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Robert Kaplan, Regional Counsel, USEPA Region 5</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Cheryl Newton, Assistant Regional Administrator, USEPA Region 5</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Alan Walts, Director, Tribal and Multi-media Program Office, USEPA Region 5</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bruno Pigott, Deputy Assistant Administrator, USEPA</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lies Clark, Director, Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, Department of</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy ("EGLE")</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Aaron B. Keatley, Chief Deputy Director, EGLE</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">James Clift, Deputy Director, EGLE</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Eric Oswald, Director of the Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division, EGLE</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Regina Strong, Environmental Justice Public Advocate, EGLE</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Kristina Donaldson, Clean Water Public Advocate, EGLE</p></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-7621365545362630212022-10-24T12:16:00.000-04:002022-10-24T12:16:03.312-04:00Benton Harbor Water Crisis : A One Year RetrospectiveEGLE and MDHHS continue to avoid having public, transparent community meetings
to explain the orgins, progress, and riskof the water crisis to residents.
Although filters use was not advisable, when EGLE could not confirm Benton
Harborwas meeting requirments at the water treatment plant, EGLE AND mdhhs
still have not made it, unequivocally clear that residents need to continue
to drink bottled water or use a filter in their home for at 6 months after
lead service line replacement as recommended by the USEPA and required in
the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions in all communities.
Corrosion control treatment and a corrosion control study, which was EGLE's
focus back in 2018, when the lead action level exceedances started, has all
but disappeared from consciousness despite the fact that lead in household
plumbing remains even after lead service line are replaced. This remaining
lead can be an ongoing source of lead exposure, expeccially when
appropriate corroosion control treatment is not used. But EGLE never revised
the study to address household sources of lead. The only study completed
focused on lead service lines, the last one which is expected to be removed
in the next few weeks.
EGLE never required Benton Harbor to send public notice to the community about
the variety of violations that had been identified in those inspections, some
of which go back as far as 2011, when the community should have first been notified.
When they finally issued some of the information in June 2022, hidden in the back of
annual water quality report, the information presented raised many more questions than
it answered. EGLE still hasn't responded to a list of questions and concerns raised
about poor notice about these violations that didn't get the same attention as the
initial lead crisis.
The ongoing lack of transparency, community engagement, and clear information about
what water is safe to drink(answer:bottled water or water from a certified lead reducing
filter) in this community that has spent the last year in the spot light make us wonder-
what is happening in communities that we don't know are having a water crisis? If this is
what happens when all eyes are on EGLE, what assurance do we have that EGLE is doing their
job in the rest of Michigan communities?
We are grateful that Benton Harbor is finally getting the attention it deserves. We hope
we can ride the momentum of Benton Harbor Community Water Council in getting the lead
serves lines out to making the additional change EGLE needs to do right by this community.
(1) First and most urgently EGLE and MDHHS need to provide clear information that residents
should continue to use bottled water or filters 6 months after lead service line are removed.
(2) Real public meeting that engage the community invite the media, and educate on what has
happened in Benton Harbor and what is yet to come, especially with the consolidation
report that is slated to be released in October.
(3)EGLE needs to respond to questions about the water treatment process providing transparent
information that demonstrates that the water treatment plant is reliably in compliance with all SDWA
requirements.
(4)EGLE should engage with concerned residents and experts transparently and with data. Assurances they
are doing "everything they can".
(5 Real public notice about the extent of violations at the water treatment plant and what this means.
presented in plain language, not regulatory jargon that assure residents. They would have been informed in a
timely manner if this had been a real emergency. There was a real emergency and EGLE DID NOT DO ENOUGH.
Rev Edward Pinkneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799690766780616006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-61095932063305690752022-10-13T18:58:00.000-04:002022-10-13T18:58:15.890-04:00Probe: Prison officers deliver drugs to inmates: Lucrative scheme is leading to major rise in overdoses<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Paul Egan at the Free Press published this expose on staff smuggling</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">drugs into MDOC causing overdose deaths to skyrocket.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You can see a video with a whistle blowing family member here:</p><p style="color: #3586ff; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/10/05/michigan-prison-drug-smuggling-corrections-officers/7393070001/">https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/10/05/michigan-prison-drug-smuggling-corrections-officers/7393070001/</a></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Probe: Prison officers deliver drugs to inmates: Lucrative scheme is</span></b></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">leading to major rise in overdoses</span></b></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Egan, Paul<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Detroit Free Press 6 Oct 2022 </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">LANSING − State prison drug overdoses have skyrocketed during the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">pandemic, and there is strong and growing evidence that points to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">corrections officers or other prison staff as significant suppliers.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Last year, 252 state prisoners overdosed on drugs — nearly quadruple the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">number in 2019.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That's despite the fact in-person prison visits — long pointed to by</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Michigan Department of Corrections officials as a major source of</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">smuggled drugs — were halted in most of 2020 and 2021 to curb the spread</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of COVID-19. Even before the pandemic started, officials took steps to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">eliminate prison mail as an illicit source.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Officials acknowledge that removing visits and mail as major sources of</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prison drugs leaves only two possibilities — drugs coming "over the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">fence" by methods such as packages dropped by drones or drug-filled</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">basketballs thrown into prison yards; and drugs smuggled in by</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">corrections officers, or other staff or contractors.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A monthslong Free Press investigation found:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Recent state and federal investigations point to prison officers as</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">participating in lucrative schemes to deliver drugs to inmates;</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is relatively easy for officers to bring drugs inside prison, partly</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">because of a significant weakness in the way the department staffs the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"gate" where employees enter prisons, and partly because already weak</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">gate policies are frequently ignored or undermined by supervisors;</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Michigan State Police, the outside agency that most frequently</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">investigates prison drug smuggling and overdose deaths, defers to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Michigan Department of Corrections officials in the handling and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">processing of evidence, frequently describing its role as "assisting"</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prison officials, rather than investigating them.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Prison personnel and Freedom of Information Act policies both obscure</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and contribute to the scope of the problem by shielding employee</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">discipline records from public scrutiny.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"They keep coming up with these explanations that don't make any sense,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and frankly, it's offensive," said Solomon Radner, a Southfield attorney</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">whose 2019 lawsuit over a prisoner's drug overdose death at Lakeland</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Correctional Facility in Coldwater, which accuses some prison officials</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of complicity in drug trafficking, was recently revived by a federal</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">appeals court.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"The reality of this is, the only way they're (drugs) getting in is with</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">certain guards allowing it in. If they were serious about not letting it</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in, it wouldn't get in."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Overdoses increased as outside contact fell</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Late in 2017, the department began photocopying all mail not sent from</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">law offices before prisoners received it as a way of stopping the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">delivery of drugs that can be distributed through clear plastic strips</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and even hidden behind stamps. Prison visits were banned completely for</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a solid year, from March 2020 until March 2021. When visits resumed,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">they were through plexiglass until September of last year. Though</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">contact visits are again permitted, they are under continued</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">restrictions, with only one embrace allowed at the start of the visit</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and another at the end.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Meanwhile, the number of prison overdoses more than doubled in 2020, to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">136 from 64 in 2019, records show. In 2021, overdoses nearly doubled</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">again to 252.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Chris Gautz, a spokesman for Department of Corrections Director Heidi</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Washington, said the increased overdoses during the pandemic don't</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">necessarily point to employees as a primary source; but he said he does</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">see a connection with the more than $27 million in federal stimulus</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">funds state prisoners received from the federal government. Also, there</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">has been a big increase in "fake" legal mail, which is not subject to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">being photocopied, and increased prison use of Narcan, the opioid</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">overdose drug, with each dose generally counted as an overdose, even if</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officials later learned the unconscious prisoner was in fact suffering</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">from low blood sugar, not an overdose, he said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"The smuggling of contraband, in all its forms, is a threat to our</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">facilities and a danger to prisoners and staff and is taken with the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">utmost seriousness," Gautz said. "Anyone who comes into our prisons</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">presents the potential for contraband introduction and we are constantly</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">assessing all vulnerabilities."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Corrections officers who reach the top of the pay scale are paid about</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">$60,000 a year, not counting overtime. But the strong demand for drugs</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">inside prison walls, combined with limited supply, means they can make</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">thousands more through smuggling.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thomas Daugherty, 47, worked as a corrections officer at Parnall</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Correctional Facility near Jackson until December 2021, when he was</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">caught smuggling 150 strips of suboxone — a drug used to treat opioid</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">withdrawal that is frequently abused as a painkiller — to an inmate.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Daugherty, who pleaded guilty to a five-year felony in July and is</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">expected to be sentenced Oct. 25, told investigators he was paid $5,000</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">per delivery and had made five or six deliveries in the six months prior</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to his arrest, according to Michigan State Police records the Free Press</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">obtained through the state Freedom of Information Act.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A federal grand jury on April 6 indicted Brandon Keith McGaffigan, 30,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of Flint, who was a corrections officer at Thumb Correctional Facility</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in Lapeer when he allegedly possessed methamphetamine, cocaine and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">heroin with the intention of selling the illegal drugs inside the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prison, in January.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But state and federal smuggling charges against prison employees are</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">relatively rare. Prison employees suspected of smuggling drugs or other</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">contraband are issued "stop orders" intended to prevent them from</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">working inside the system again. Sometimes, local prosecutors decline to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">bring charges, Gautz said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Both prisoners and officers who have come forward with information about</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">drug smuggling by prison staff have said they quickly became targets for</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">retaliation.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When Ventron Lott was found dead at Macomb Correctional Facility on Dec.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">9, 2021, Lott's mother, Joan Johnson, thought his death resulted from a</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">seizure. Her son had just called her to tell her he was not receiving</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">his required anti-seizure medication, she said. Before she could follow</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">up on that, a prison official called to tell her Lott was dead.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A few weeks later, Johnson received a phone call from another Macomb</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prisoner, Marshall Forrest. He told Johnson her son, who was housed in</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the prison's residential treatment facility, died from an overdose. The</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">drugs, Forrest said, were supplied by the prisoner who bunked with Lott,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">who in turn received the drugs from a corrections officer.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Johnson then obtained her son's autopsy report and was shocked to learn</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">he died from an overdose of fentanyl and heroin. Prison officials never</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">told her that, she said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gautz said prison officials often don't know the cause when they inform</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">family members of a prisoner's death.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Forrest, 60, who is serving a life sentence for a 1998 murder in Berrien</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">County, has since written a series of letters, backed by a sworn</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">affidavit, to Johnson and to investigators with the MSP, the U.S.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Attorney's Office and others. Forrest alleges widespread prison drug</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">dealing, controlled by gangs and certain prison officers, and the use of</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">smuggled cellphones and mobile platforms such as Cash App to make and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">receive payments.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Forrest, who in some of the letters identifies corrections officers by</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">name, said he was stabbed in the face in an April 4 chow hall prisoner</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">attack he believes was orchestrated by prison staff.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"Not one MDOC staff of the four present inside the kitchen stopped this</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prisoner ... from continuing on with stabbing me," Forrest said in a</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">sworn and notarized July 6 affidavit Forrest provided to the Free Press.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gautz denied Forrest is being harassed and said prison video shows</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officers came to his aid within five to 10 seconds.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A Free Press reporter met with Forrest for two hours at Earnest C.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Brooks Correctional Facility near Muskegon.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"I want to speak out. I almost lost my life already. I might get lucky</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and someone is going to look at this," said Forrest, whose cell at</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Macomb Correctional Facility was across from Lott's.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Forrest said Lott approached him on the night of his overdose, looking</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">sick and disheveled.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lott said he'd snorted drugs given to him by the prisoner he bunked</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">with. Lott thought he was snorting Wellbutrin — a prescription</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">anti-depressant — but later learned he was given a mix of heroin and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">fentanyl. Lott also named a corrections officer he said gave the drugs</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to the prisoner he bunked with, Forrest said. The Free Press is not</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">naming the officer, pending further verification.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lott gave Forrest his mother's phone number and asked him to contact her</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">if anything happened to him, he said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Forrest said he did not place that call for about five weeks because he</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">felt intimidated by corrections officers who he said prevented him from</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">speaking to Michigan State Police officers investigating Lott's death.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He said he decided to come forward once he concluded the incident was</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">going to be swept under the rug.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He said he was interviewed by an MSP investigator in March, but has had</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">no follow-up.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Shanon Banner, a spokeswoman for the MSP, would neither confirm nor deny</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">whether an investigation into Forrest's allegations is underway.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Since meeting with the Free Press, "I am being harassed continually,"</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Forrest wrote in a Sept. 22 email from prison.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Officers, too, have complained of harassment after speaking out about</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">suspected drug dealing by prison staff.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Brent Rohrig was a resident unit manager at the G. Robert Cotton</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Correctional Facility near Jackson when he spoke up about a corrections</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officer he suspected was smuggling heroin to prisoners.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Corrections Department opened an investigation — into Rohrig,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">alleging he had misused the email system. The internal affairs</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">investigator the department assigned to comb through Rohrig's emails was</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the ex-wife of the officer he accused of smuggling. Rohrig said that</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">move endangered both him and the prisoners who had confided in him about</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the illegal drugs.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The department fired Rohrig in 2017, while the other officer remained on</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the job. Only months later, after Rohrig went public, did the department</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">fire the officer, accusing him of smuggling unspecified contraband,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">overfamiliarity with prisoners, and "conduct unbecoming" a corrections</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officer. He was never criminally charged.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In 2018, a civil service hearing officer blasted the department and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">ordered Rohrig reinstated with back pay, saying the trumped-up</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">allegations against him were "the essence of disparate, arbitrary,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">disproportionate discipline."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rohrig also sued the department and received a $50,000 settlement and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">was allowed to retire early, said his Detroit attorney, Jonathan Marko.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rohrig told the Free Press that after his firing and reinstatement</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">received media attention, he heard from numerous prison employees who</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">felt the department had retaliated against them for speaking out about</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prison issues.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lax front gate practices</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How do officers bring drugs into prisons, since they pass through metal</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">detectors and are subject to inspection of their bags and random</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">pat-downs when they arrive for work?</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Three current or former corrections officers assigned to three different</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prisons, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of prison</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">security issues, told the Free Press corrupt officers can take advantage</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of a significant and long-standing weakness in the way the gate is</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">staffed.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Though an officer is stationed at the gate to check bags and perform</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">random pat-downs for more than 16 hours out of every day, many</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">facilities do not assign a full-time gate officer during "third shift,"</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">which is typically from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Officers are subject to search</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">upon arrival for that shift, but once the shift begins, until near the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">end of the shift, only the "bubble officer" — so named because he or she</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">typically works inside a compartment shielded by transparent glass or</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">plastic — is present at the gate. That officer, who unlike the gate</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officer actually controls the opening of the gate, can attempt to view</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the inside of an officer's bag through the window but can't perform</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">pat-downs because of standing instructions not to leave the bubble, the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">sources said. Officers who leave the prison to grab lunch or go to their</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">vehicles during a break, midway through that third shift, can be</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">confident they are unlikely to be subjected to a pat-down upon their</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">return, the sources said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gautz said it is prison policy for an officer to be called to the gate</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">whenever an employee enters. He could not say whether that policy is</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">always followed.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Earl Booth, a corrections officer at the Charles E. Egeler Reception and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Guidance Center near Jackson, has worked frequently at the front gate,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">including more than two years as the full-time front gate officer,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">between 2013 and 2015. Booth says a minority of supervisors repeatedly</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">violate front gate security rules. Officers rightfully fear retaliation</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">if they try to insist the rules be followed, he said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Between 2013 and 2017, Booth documented and reported at least 10</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">incidents in which five sergeants and lieutenants tried to enter the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">prison in violation of MDOC rules. Most involved supervisors who refused</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to take off their belts or empty their pockets before passing through</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the metal detector, instead just setting off the detector and demanding</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a pat-down.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Booth has complained in writing, not only about the supervisors who</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">violated gate policy, but about the supervisors of the supervisors, for</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">failing to investigate the incidents and impose discipline. Nearly every</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">supervisor Booth has complained about has since been promoted, records</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">show.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Booth meanwhile, who had no discipline on his record from when he joined</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the department in 2000 until 2012, when his harassment complaint against</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a lieutenant was upheld, has been subjected to a series of</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">investigations and discipline he believes are retaliatory.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In 2017, Booth reported a different lieutenant for screaming at him to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">open the gate, when there was no gate officer present and Booth was</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">working in the bubble; and for repeatedly failing to present his</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">identification card at the gate, as required. Records Booth obtained</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">through FOIA show a captain then tipped off the lieutenant about Booth's</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">complaint. Booth's complaint was not investigated, but the lieutenant</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">brought his own complaint against Booth for doodling on a piece of paper</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">while working. Booth was found guilty of three work rule violations,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">including dereliction of duty, and suspended for three days without pay.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Booth later obtained records that show that in 2019, the captain who</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tipped off the lieutenant was twice caught trying to enter the facility</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">with his cellphone. That's a serious infraction that can bring</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">discipline up to and including dismissal. But that captain, who by 2019</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">had been promoted to inspector and has since been promoted again to a</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">position in internal affairs, received only a written reprimand for the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">first offense and a one-day suspension for the second offense, records</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">show.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gautz said those punishments are standard for someone with no discipline</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">on their record. "Mistakes happen; we understand that," he said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Officials do not believe the lieutenant screamed at Booth, and the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">captain was notifying the officer in charge of the shift, who happened</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to be the lieutenant, that a front gate incident had occurred, not</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">intentionally tipping anyone off, he said. Gautz declined to comment on</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the other incidents Booth cited.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"Staff are flat-out intimidated and afraid to report arrogant and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">privileged supervisors that feel they can do whatever they want, and</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">burn us when we report them," said Booth, who in January, after he was</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">contacted and interviewed by the Free Press, sued the department in</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">federal court over discipline-related issues.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Free Press has reviewed documentation related to all of the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">incidents Booth complained about, but is not naming the supervisors,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">partly because Booth is not accusing those supervisors of smuggling</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">drugs or other contraband. Still, Booth said such disregard for the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">rules — and reprisals against those willing to enforce the rules —</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">undermines overall security.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"People are afraid to report it — they're afraid to do anything," Booth</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">said. "That's how stuff gets in."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Department investigates itself</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When overdose deaths or discoveries of significant amounts of smuggled</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">drugs inside the prisons result in the police being called, Corrections</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Department officials and employees are not treated as potential</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">suspects. Instead, they help run the investigation.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On Aug. 26, a sharp-eyed officer noticed several packages attached to a</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">trash compactor being delivered to Lakeland by Waste Management Inc.,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the prison's trash contractor. The packages contained marijuana,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tobacco, suboxone and three cellphones and chargers. In an Aug. 31 email</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to the Free Press, MSP Detective Sgt. Matthew Berry described the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">department's role as "assisting the Michigan Department of Corrections</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">with an investigation" of the incident.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That's despite the fact officials at Lakeland specifically, and the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Michigan Department of Corrections more generally, had already been</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">publicly accused of involvement in drug smuggling at Lakeland, located</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in Coldwater in south-central Michigan, in a 2019 federal lawsuit</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">related to the overdose death of 21-year-old Lakeland prisoner Seth</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Zakora. Although that suit, which initially included allegations against</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the MSP, had been dismissed in 2021, the allegations against some</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lakeland prison officials had been revived just two weeks earlier, by</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a development that had been</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">publicized in the Free Press.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Also, there were earlier drug smuggling incidents involving Waste</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Management trucks both before and after the MSP investigation into</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">another drug overdose death at Lakeland — that of 49-year-old prisoner</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Charles Foresi on Jan. 1 of this year, according to an MDOC spokesman</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and records the Free Press obtained using FOIA.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Despite all of that, Gautz said Aug. 31 that prison officials do not</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">believe the waste hauling company is involved in the smuggling.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Given the logistical difficulties of arranging such a delivery, the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">involvement of someone inside the prison who is not a prisoner cannot be</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">ruled out.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yet giving Corrections Department officials significant roles in such</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">investigations is standard MSP practice.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">MSP's Berry, who also investigated Foresi's death, wrote in a Feb. 2</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">report that an unauthorized cellphone discovered inside the prison</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">during the death investigation "was given to the MDOC intelligence unit</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to be forensically examined," and said in a Jan. 12 report that prison</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officials were "going through video evidence, phone calls, and JPay</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(prisoner email) records."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Banner said her agency assists the Corrections Department because its</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">criminal investigation capabilities are limited.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"MSP is utilized to investigate and present the case to the prosecutor,"</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">she said. "Our ability to work cooperatively together in the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">investigation increases both the effectiveness and timeliness of</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">investigations."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While the MSP and Corrections Department work closely on investigating</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">potential criminal wrongdoing inside the prison system, the transparency</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">each provides related to transgressions by their own employees is vastly</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">different.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When a state trooper is investigated by internal affairs or gets fired,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the Free Press can use FOIA to obtain reports of interviews and other</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">actions related to the internal affairs investigation, as well as</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">records documenting why the trooper was fired.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those records are not available from the Corrections Department, making</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the scope of actual or suspected drug trafficking by its employees</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">difficult to track.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The department cites a section of state law that declares "personnel</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">records" exempt from FOIA in refusing to release records of internal</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">affairs investigations, even in cases where the investigations uphold</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">accusations of wrongdoing. The department takes that position even</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">though internal affairs is an entirely different section of the</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">department from human resources and maintains its own records separate</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">from personnel files.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Last year, the department also used the "personnel files" exemption to</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">refuse to release copies of "stop orders" banning suspended or fired</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">corrections officers from entering state prisons, even though "stop</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">orders" are a form of semi-public notices, in which the names and photos</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of employees are circulated to the front gate, about a dozen prison</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">officials, and even sometimes officials at neighboring prisons, to alert</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">everyone to bar entry.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Johnson, who almost didn't learn her son died from a prison overdose,</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">said she wonders how many other moms are similarly kept in the dark.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"None of it makes sense," she said.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or <a href="mailto:pegan@freepress.com"><span style="color: #3586ff;">pegan@freepress.com</span></a>. Follow him on</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Twitter @paulegan4. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Copyright 2022 - DETROIT FREE PRESS - All Rights Reserved.</p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-24891662556681710192022-10-10T17:15:00.005-04:002022-10-10T17:18:58.686-04:00The long-lasting Benton Harbor water crisis has finally resulted in a victory for the Benton Harbor Community Water Council <p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px;">by the Benton Harbor Community Water Council</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px;">Since the Benton Harbor water crisis began in 2018, Benton Harbor has been ground zero for lead in drinking water. Benton Harbor is a majority Black city long burdened by significant poverty and legacy pollution as an environmental justice sacrifice zone in the interest of the local manufacturing corporations, i.e., Whirlpool.</span></p><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On top of such socioeconomic and environmental challenges, the avoidable water crisis in Benton Harbor was protracted because the Benton Harbor Community Water Council (BHCWC), along with voices of residents, were dismissed and ignored while our drinking water was poisoned with lead, city-wide. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The city schedule for water sampling for lead was non-compliant with the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) for over 6 cycles, and crucial data points from water samples showed extremely high lead. This extremely important information was hidden from public knowledge in order to make Benton Harbor water appear to be in compliance with the state and national LCR.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In order to navigate the water crisis, the BHCWC became intimately knowledgeable about the LCR regulations. The council also educated the public. Now, the council and many residents understand the limitations of the LCR from a public health standpoint, and are able to identify necessary LCR policy changes. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">BHCWC wants to share these lessons learned for the benefit of the greater good. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It's been over 3 years since the BHCWC and a group of 21 community and environmental organizations filed petitions for the US-EPA to intervene in Benton Harbor after more than three years of high lead contamination. The 9,700 residents of this majority black, low-income community, where the majority of the residents get their water through a lead service line, had 90 percentile lead levels ranging from 22 to 32, with some individual lead results at nearly 900ppb, from 2018 through 2021. The Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy* (EGLE) did the minimum possible to inform this community about the water crisis.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is a huge win for the Benton Harbor Community Water Council, led by Rev. Edward Pinkney, and for the residents of Benton Harbor. It has been just over one year since the petition was filed. The petition got the Governor moving since it’s an election year. We are anticipating very soon an announcement that all lead service lines have been replaced.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the midst of this success, the crisis also revealed alarming information over the past year. We learned that despite their name change, EGLE has hardly learned any lessons from the Flint Water Crisis. They failed to take swift and comprehensive action to educate this environmental justice community on the risk and prevalence of lead, and hardly did anything to ensure safe water was available for all residents. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We learned that regular mandatory water plant inspections have been turning up significant treatment deficiencies for years that prevented the water utility, EGLE, and EPA from being able to confirm whether treatment requirements were being met at the treatment plant. It took EGLE over 6 months to produce data to confirm that treatment processes were meeting all requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act/Surface Water Treatment Rules despite them stating the water was safe to drink in November of 2021.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">EGLE and Michigan Dept. of Health & Human Services (MDHHS) continue to avoid having public, transparent community meetings to explain the origins, progress, and risk of the water crisis to residents of Benton Harbor.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Using filters was not advised by BHCWC early on since filters hide bacteria and the water plant was not in compliance (water contained bacteria). And, EGLE could not confirm Benton Harbor was meeting requirements at the water treatment plant, </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As of now, EGLE and MDHHS are not saying what residents need to know: It should be made unequivocally clear that residents need to continue to drink bottled water or use a filter in their home for at least 6 months after lead service line replacement. This is recommended by the US-EPA and required in the Lead and Copper Rule Revision in all municipalities.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is believed that Gov. Whitmer is not happy that a black man, Rev. Edward Pinkney, blew the whistle on her. We suspect she is planning an attack on Pinkney and the BHCWC. We will need your help. Our suspicion is based on a recent action of Whitmer’s: She ordered state police to come to Pinkney’s house to accuse him of selling water to South Bend. This couldn’t be farther from the truth and is, frankly, laughable.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">*Formerly The Michigan Dept. of Environment</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-82503267774578507332022-08-20T13:11:00.000-04:002022-08-20T13:11:27.333-04:00Finally: Some real journalism regarding the Benton Harbor water crisis<p> <span style="color: #0e1935; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 26px;">Addressing Benton Harbor’s Lead Water Crisis Took a Village—and Years</span></p><p style="color: #535353; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As in Flint, Michigan, severe lead contamination in Benton Harbor illustrates the obstacles environmental justice communities face, and why the fight for stronger federal protections continues.</p><p style="color: #535353; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="color: #535353; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Kyler Sumter Aug. 9, 2022</p><p style="color: #535353; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">Even before elevated lead levels in Benton Harbor’s water were official, there were already rumblings in the Michigan community. Reverend Edward Pinkney recalls that the daughter of a longtime resident, who was visiting from Texas in 2018, ran the bath water and noticed it was yellow and had particles in it. She asked her mom how long it had been this way. The mother’s response: Months.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">This is when residents with similar concerns formed the <a href="https://bhcwc.org/about/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">Benton Harbor Community Water Council</a> (BHCWC). Then Pinkney, the organization’s president, sent the water to a public lab. Results showed lead at a concentration of more than 300 parts per billion (ppb), which severely exceeded the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/lead-and-copper-rule" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">federal action level</a> of 15 parts per billion.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">Later that year, Cyndi Roper, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/cyndi-roper" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">NRDC’s Michigan senior policy advocate</a>, Nick Leonard, executive director of the <a href="https://www.glelc.org/staff" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">Great Lakes Environmental Law Center</a>, and Elin Warn Betanzo, <a href="https://safewaterengineering.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">a water safety consultan</a><a href="https://safewaterengineering.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">t</a><a href="https://safewaterengineering.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">,</a> began separately analyzing Michigan’s water data.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">After the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">infamous water crisis in Flint</a>, and the poor governmental response that followed, they’d been part of a coalition seeking to revise the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/cyndi-roper/michigan-moves-eliminate-lead-drinking-water-pipes" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">state’s Lead and Copper Rule</a> (LCR), which attempts to limit lead and copper in drinking water. And while their work helped ensure Michigan’s LCR became the strongest in the nation, these advocates also wanted to confirm that water utilities were adhering to the new requirements.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">“In most instances, nobody is watching those compliance reports,” <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/cyndi-roper" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #008fbd; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.5s ease;">says Roper.</a>“These utilities and state agencies aren’t used to anybody paying attention.”</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">That fall, when the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)—the state agency responsible for regulating issues like water contamination—released the compliance report for Benton Harbor, the results were troubling. The small, majority-Black city had its first official lead “action level exceedance.” It wasn’t the last one either. More exceedances followed, in 2019, 2020, and 2021. “We were getting increasingly concerned because there’s no safe level of lead exposure, yet this community was having very persistent elevated lead levels,” says Betanzo.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">The lack of aggressive action by state and local agencies in response to this ongoing crisis meant an entire community was left vulnerable to lead levels that posed extraordinary health risks. It also became the impetus for water experts, community leaders, lawyers, and advocates to come together and demand justice for the people of Benton Harbor.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: "Helveticaneueltstd roman", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.875em; margin: 0px 0px 40px;"><span style="color: #535353; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Continue reading: </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nrdc.org/stories/addressing-benton-harbors-lead-water-crisis-took-village-and-years&source=gmail&ust=1661101366693000&usg=AOvVaw0g41Ky_f-OZ7fT9_dNL3LV" href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/addressing-benton-harbors-lead-water-crisis-took-village-and-years" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #1155cc; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;" target="_blank">https://www.nrdc.org/stories/<wbr></wbr>addressing-benton-harbors-<wbr></wbr>lead-water-crisis-took-<wbr></wbr>village-and-years</a></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-86521051471104770242022-08-20T11:53:00.001-04:002022-08-20T11:53:59.320-04:00New Benton Harbor Community Water Council Website!<h2 style="text-align: left;"> <a href="https://bhcwc2.org/" target="_blank">Benton Harbor Community Water Council</a></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;">Check out the wealth of information! Under the "Take Action" tab, you can: </h2><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><h2 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://bhcwc2.org/write-mdhhs" target="_blank">Write MDHHS</a> </h2></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6PYum1XG6_VQ2RKQXpCF8OxAPLikkxhpIenFnG8vu4EDDhas7TSIQbwoo7kNphi3drJiGujwdVNIySPBizzO2gGeeD0UEZsNTe-dJgH5tXIx559Ttynluo7WjMc9cX30KDuQo0S8r_vm0zIYPiLN54S-H7RqIhn-ckWmT4C-eZmzjiECOb-Y/s362/Water%20Justice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="362" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6PYum1XG6_VQ2RKQXpCF8OxAPLikkxhpIenFnG8vu4EDDhas7TSIQbwoo7kNphi3drJiGujwdVNIySPBizzO2gGeeD0UEZsNTe-dJgH5tXIx559Ttynluo7WjMc9cX30KDuQo0S8r_vm0zIYPiLN54S-H7RqIhn-ckWmT4C-eZmzjiECOb-Y/s320/Water%20Justice.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></h2>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-31206903800519733692022-04-16T11:12:00.000-04:002022-04-16T11:12:10.893-04:00ACLU and Coalition Partners Condemn the Grand Rapids Police Killing of Patrick Lyoya <p> April 13, 2022</p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: gtam, Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: gtam, Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif;"><b>ACLU and Coalition Partners Condemn the Grand Rapids Police Killing of Patrick Lyoya and Call for Transparency, Accountability </b></span></p><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Following the Grand Rapids Police Department’s (GRPD) release today of several horrific videos documenting the police killing of Congolese father Patrick Lyoya, 26, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU), Greater Grand Rapids NAACP, LINC UP, and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center together grieve with the family and community, and condemn the brutal disregard for Mr. Lyoya’s life. Enough is enough. It is time to put an end to the systemic indifference to Black lives that pervades police culture throughout Grand Rapids, the state, and nation. Accountability requires not just full transparency, but a commitment to fundamentally changing policing so that no more lives are lost. The City and GRPD must listen to the voices of Mr. Lyoya’s family and those at the forefront of this struggle about what they need in this time of crisis. We urgently call on the City of Grand Rapids, GRPD, and government officials to take the following immediate steps: </p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5555555556rem; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.7777777778rem;">The name of the officer involved who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya must be disclosed; </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.7777777778rem;">A prosecutor outside of Kent County, who does not work regularly with the GRPD, must be appointed to handle this case, as is legally required in many states and is widely acknowledged to be best practice; </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.7777777778rem;">A federal investigation must be immediately launched into this killing along with the history and culture of the GRPD;</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.7777777778rem;">The community must have a seat at the table in the ongoing negotiations over the GRPD police union contracts, which have for far too long shielded officers from accountability and which do not reflect the community’s priorities for how to achieve public safety in our City; </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.7777777778rem;">Both the Civilian Appeal Board and the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability must be given the authority, resources, and funding to provide true civilian oversight and be able to affect real change; and </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">The City and GRPD must respect the constitutional right of all people to protest this tragedy and exercise their freedom of speech without violence, threats or intimidation. </li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Loren Khogali, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, has this statement: </strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;">“The brutal and senseless death of Patrick Lyoya is the result of a police interaction that unnecessarily escalated to violence, the reflection of a policing culture that relies on enforcement and tolerates violent responses to nonviolent situations. The community waited nine days for the release of this horrific video showing the death of Patrick Lyoya at the hands of a GRPD officer. The video evidence raises more questions, and the City must be absolutely transparent throughout this investigation. For years, the community has been calling for an end to racist policing practices and for a public safety model based on community reinvestment. The GRPD and City’s lack of response has now resulted in Mr. Lyoya’s killing. This must end. A meaningful and impactful response to the community’s call for change is long overdue.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Cle J. Jackson, president of the Greater Grand Rapids NAACP has this statement: </strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;">“Rage and hurt do not begin to express the depth of despair that we are experiencing at the site of another Black man killed at the hands of a police officer. When will the killing of Black people stop? We must stop it. We must ensure this senseless loss of life is not in vain. We demand accountability and full transparency. We demand the full release of every document related to the killing of Patrick Lyoya. We demand a police department that can truly be trusted to protect and serve all people. Patrick, his family, and the greater community of Grand Rapids, deserve nothing less.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">LaKiya Jenkins, executive director of LINC UP has this statement: </strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />“I am deeply saddened by the violent murder of Patrick Lyoya. Our current policing structure continues to fail us and intentional change must happen now. We stand in solidarity with the family and local community in the call for justice. To our community, justice is the immediate arrest of the officer involved and the full cooperation of the other officers on the scene. Justice is ultimately an indictment brought down by an independent prosecutor who will pursue this case with clear eyes. Anything less will be a failure by our city's leaders.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Susan Reed, attorney and director of Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, has this statement: </strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;">“Like all immigrants, Patrick Lyoya deserved to find freedom and safety in our country. The Grand Rapids police broke that promise. We mourn with the family and community as we call for justice for Patrick.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;">Know your rights while protesting information and booklets available to download and print are at: <a href="https://www.aclumich.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-when-you-protest" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0055aa; text-decoration: none;">https://www.aclumich.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-when-you-protest</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;">https://www.aclumich.org/en/press-releases/black-life-ended-patrick-lyoya-father-son-should-be-alive-today</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(60, 53, 50); color: #3c3532; font-family: cschoolbook, Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.3333333333rem;"><br /></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-29326792069339015262022-04-08T11:02:00.000-04:002022-04-08T11:02:08.061-04:00Stop the State Police Harassment and Targeting of Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor<p><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 20px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">Stop the State Police Harassment and Targeting of Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor</b></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">April 7, 2022</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">To Governor Gretchen Whitmer, State Police Director Colonel Joseph Gafper, and DHHS Deputy Director David Knezek:</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">We are greatly alarmed that Michigan State police are being sent to target and harass Rev. Edward Pinkney, the noted community activist in Benton Harbor, Michigan. On March 25, 2022 Sgt. Hayward of the Paw Paw State Police post and another officer went to Rev. Pinkney’s home. They raised several ridiculous allegations that Rev. Pinkney was selling (donated) water in South Bend, Indiana and that Rev. Pinkney might be tampering with water test results in Benton Harbor. When Rev. Pinkney asked about why the State of Michigan had not paid him for the use of two rooms in his church contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to store filters and water for the past months, the officers accused him of “holding the supplies hostage.” On another recent occasion state troopers came to the church and watched while water was being distributed to community members.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">We cannot help but recall that Rev. Pinkney has been the victim of persecution for his community service. He was imprisoned for literally quoting the Bible in an article. This case was thrown out upon appeal but only after Rev. Pinkney spent one year in prison.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">On another occasion Rev. Pinkney was arrested, tried and convicted for petitioning to recall the Mayor of Benton Harbor. He spent two and one half years in State prisons. Only after those long years Rev. Pinkney’s case was overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court which found that he had not broken any law. We believe that without the mass public support and pressure Rev. Pinkney would have been killed by the guards in Marquette Prison.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">So we take it very seriously when State troopers start harassing the Reverend and when spurious charges start to be floated against him. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">We demand that you take immediate action to stop the harassment, apologize to Rev. Pinkney and ensure that all officials under your direction cease and desist from any and all further actions that target and endanger Rev. Pinkney.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Sincerely, </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">David Sole<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Abayomi Azikiwe<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yvonne Jones</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Moratorium NOW Coalition</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><b>Take Immediate Action:</b></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; min-height: 16px;">Call and express your concern or email a message to<b></b></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>Governor Gretchen Whitmer </li>
</ul>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 36px; text-indent: 36px;">517-335-7858</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 72px;">Michigan.gov/Whitmer/contact, click Contact the Governor, fill in the information and type in your message</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 36px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>State Police Director, Colonel Joseph Gafper</li>
</ul>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 36px; text-indent: 36px;">517-332-2521</p>
<p style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 36px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="mailto:Msp_webmaster@michigan.gov">Msp_webmaster@michigan.gov<span style="color: blue; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 36px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>David Knezek, Deputy Director for Administration, Department of Health and Human Services</li>
</ul>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 36px; text-indent: 36px;">313- 864-0161 (cell phone) </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px 72px; text-indent: 36px;">or 517-241-3740 DHHS state office headquarters</p><div><br /></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-18413478766516619562022-03-18T20:30:00.002-04:002022-03-18T20:30:34.203-04:00Corporate Crime Continues in Benton Harbor<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>~Occupy the PGA ~ May 2022, Benton Harbor ~ Details forthcoming~</b></span></p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":p6"><div aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":pa" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 253px;" tabindex="1"><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">Greetings to all,</div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">The struggle that has taken place in recent years in Benton Harbor is a case in point, and one that holds a number of lessons for all Americans. The fight in Benton Harbor is a war, not a conflict. It's a war over whether or not we (and all Americans) will have clean, safe water. And after many years, it’s still about whether we will continue to live in poverty under the heel of open corporate rule.</div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">The attack on democracy in Benton Harbor shows that the corporate power structure is determined to crush anyone who stands in its way. It's part of a process under way across America in various forms.</div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">Let's make this struggle a victory for all. Let's confront not only the corporation destroying Benton Harbor, but all American corporate crime. Hope to see everyone at Occupy the PGA 2022!</div><div class="gmail-ydp7cf7bd13yiv0124449208ydp80f950f8signature"><div> </div><div>Rev Edward Pinkney</div><div><a href="http://bhbanco.org/" style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">bhbanco.org</a></div><div> </div></div></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-48125937679141985612022-03-16T17:38:00.001-04:002022-03-16T17:39:58.354-04:00MDHHS won’t say filtered Benton Harbor water is safe to drink, but residents can decide what’s best for themselves<p style="background-color: white; color: #636363; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="Roboto, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-size: 18px;">"All this leaves Benton Harbor residents without satisfying answers about the safety of their water."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #636363; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #636363; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #636363; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Michigan Radio | By </b><a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/people/lindsey-smith"><span style="color: #0a55a7;"><b>Lindsey Smith</b></span></a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #636363; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Published March 14, 2022</p><p style="background-color: white; color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><b></b><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="pastedGraphic.png" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/7626bc2b-d651-4c56-b566-945524cbb452" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">For five months, state health officials have told Benton Harbor residents not to drink their tap water. The warning came after an inspection at the city’s water treatment plant <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/environment-climate-change/2021-11-02/federal-and-state-regulators-order-benton-harbor-to-fix-its-water-system-after-inspections-find-numerous-violations"><span style="color: #0a55a7;">uncovered numerous violations</span></a> related to disinfection. Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services also cited ongoing elevated lead levels. But now that safety message is shifting.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Teams of workers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency went into nearly 200 Benton Harbor homes to get water samples late last year. Tera Fong is the Water Division Director for the EPA region that includes Michigan.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">“We found that properly operated filters were successful in reducing lead considerably and consistently with the performance expectations of those filters. We did see firsthand that that filters were often not operated and installed properly,” Fong said earlier this month.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Full article:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">https://www.michiganradio.org/health/2022-03-14/mdhhs-wont-say-filtered-benton-harbor-water-is-safe-to-drink-but-residents-can-decide-whats-best-for-themselves</p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-13894432124768951712022-03-09T17:41:00.004-05:002022-03-09T17:41:43.703-05:00Benton Harbor water still not safe to drink (despite the article's title)<p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Please take a look at the 17 photos accompanying the article below to see the daily labor residents have to carry out to have some clean water. In the governor's town of East Lansing, pipe installation would happen in a more than timely fashion. It should also be noted that no St. Joe residents have crossed the river to help out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Rev. Pinkney says that the statements of <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.23399998247623444px;">Elin Betanzo, a water quality expert and former EPA official, are the most important part of the article. They are at the end. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Farnham Medium", Georgia, serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.8px;"><b>EPA says Benton Harbor tap water filters are working properly</b></span></p><div><p style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">BENTON HARBOR, MI — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says filters distributed by the state and county health departments since 2018 to remove lead from tap water in Benton Harbor are working effectively.</span></p>
<p style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">When properly installed and used, filters are removing lead from municipal tap water, the EPA said last week, following a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/mi/benton-harbor-drinking-water"><span style="color: #134eb2; font-kerning: none;">2021 study of about 200 homes in Benton Harbor</span></a>.</span></p>
<p style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The study was launched in response to a request from community advocates who sought a federal intervention following three years of high lead levels in city water.</span></p>
<p style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="color: #134eb2; font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/benton-harbor-sdwa-petition-20210909.pdf">Petitioners</a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> expressed concern that health officials were distributing point-of-use faucet filters and water pitcher filters in response to elevated lead risk but weren’t taking steps to ensure they worked or that people were using them properly.</span></p>
<p style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">They asked that EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) conduct a filter study.</span></p>
<p style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">While noting that the filters are working, the EPA nonetheless <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finds-water-filters-effective-removing-lead-benton-harbor-drinking-water"><span style="color: #134eb2; font-kerning: none;">concurred</span></a> that Benton Harbor residents “need better information to install and operate filters properly,” and said the agency would help distribute educational materials.</span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/03/epa-says-tap-water-filters-working-properly-in-benton-harbor.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/03/epa-says-tap-water-filters-working-properly-in-benton-harbor.html</a></span></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-79594616819585258822022-03-05T13:53:00.002-05:002022-03-09T12:21:17.064-05:00EPA will not say Benton Harbor water is safe<p><span style="font-family: Cochin;">Rev. Pinkney states the article below is the first one to mention the important issue of bacteria in the water.</span><span style="font-family: Cochin;"> He also said it’s the combination </span><span style="font-family: Cochin;">of bacteria and lead which is so dangerous. It can make people very ill, and can </span><span style="font-family: Cochin;">also kill them. It’s a silent killer - he’s very worried about what’s happening to BH residents. </span></p><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">Rev. Pinkney brings a wealth of knowledge to </span><span style="font-family: Cochin;">the Benton Harbor water crisis having had a chemist for a father.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><span style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">He said he spoke with the EPA this week and asked pointedly, “Is BHarbor water safe </span><span style="font-family: Cochin;">to drink?”</span><span style="font-family: Cochin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Cochin;">They would not answer him, danced around the question.</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><span style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">Pinkney states:</span></div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><div><br /></div><div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">EPA & EGLE need to share water quality data demonstrating that</span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">Benton Harbor water is safe from bacterial contamination in spite of ongoing drinking water violations.</span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">The question is, is Benton Harbor water safe to drink?</span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">The answer is, it is not.</span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Cochin;">***</span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><br /></span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><b>Benton Harbor residents should keep drinking bottled water, </b></span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85)" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><b>but EPA says filters work on lead</b></span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 24px;"><span style="font-family: Cochin;"><a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/health/2022-03-03/benton-harbor-residents-should-keep-drinking-bottled-water-but-epa-says-filters-work-on-lead" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">https://www.michiganradio.org/health/2022-03-03/benton-harbor-residents-should-keep-drinking-bottled-water-but-epa-says-filters-work-on-lead</a></span></div></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-5224202428514938132022-03-05T11:27:00.000-05:002022-03-05T11:27:07.959-05:00The question is, Is Benton Harbor water safe to drink? Many violations at water facility. Lead Public Education Violation; According to EPA Order 107.a.
Benton Harbor did not do the following between Febrauary -August 2021
provide statement on water bills stateing the system has found high
levels of lead, etc in violation of 40CFR 141.85 did not contact health
department and deliver public education material in violation of 40 CFR
TIER 2 VIOLATION
Corrision Control violations: According to EGLE Amended order 2.18 Benton
Harborwas required to submit a corrosion control study by 9-30-2020. If a
water system is required to complete a corrosion study, Mich Admin.
Code R. 325. 106 04f(2) (e) required EGLE to make determination within
12 months after the supply exceeds the lead action 1-1-20 and for the
watersystem to complete the study within 12 months of EGEL required study
(1-1-21)
Tier 2 violation
Surface Water Treatment Rule -Monitoring Violations: According to EPA
Order2.4 and EGLE Order108B-C Benton Harbor's continueous chlorine analyzer
at the entry point was down for more than 2 wees and while it was down, the
system was not taking resideual disinfectant concentration grab samples during
after hours in violation of 40CFR 141.74
Tier 3 violation
Surface Water Treatment Rule-Calibration Violations; According to EPA oRDER 108.D-E
Benton Harbor was not calibrating its chlorine analyzers with grab samples every
5 days and was not calibrating its 12 continous turbidity monitors once every 3 months
or after significant maintenance in violation of 40CFR 141.74(a) (2) 40Cfr141.74(c)(1)
Tier 3 Violation
SurfaceWater Treatment Rule-Disinfection Profiling and Benchmarking; According to EPA
order 110.a-c, Benton Harbor failed to maintain a properly functioning meter and
continuous chlorine analyzer which are necessary to calculate the disinfectant residual
contact time in violation of 40 CFR 141.533 and the system made multiple changes to its
chlorine treatment in 2017 but failed to develop disinfection profiles or benchmarks
prior to making the changes in violation of 40 CFR 141.540
Tier 2 violation
The problem is , how many more violations that is not reported? The question is,is the water safe to drink? Would you drink it?
L
Rev Edward Pinkneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799690766780616006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-70650925033532297932022-02-20T14:55:00.003-05:002022-02-20T14:55:51.958-05:00"However, high amounts of lead that can present significant health risks, particularly to infants, children, and pregnant mothers, still exist in Benton Harbor’s tap water."<p> <span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">February </span><span style="font-family: MinionPro; font-size: 11pt;">10</span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">, 2022 </span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">Submitted via email</span></p><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Liesl Clark, Director<br />Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Elizabeth Hertel, Director Michigan Department of Health And Human Services</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">Re: Benton Harbor Safe Water Plan</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Dear Director Clark and Director Hertel,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Since a group of over 20 environmental and community organizations (collectively, “Petitioners”) came together in early September to file an emergency petition with the U.S. EPA regarding lead in Benton Harbor’s public water system, all levels of government have stepped up to provide a number of services to Benton Harbor residents. While these services were overdue, they have ensured that all residents of Benton Harbor have access to safe drinking water, have put the City on the path towards removing all lead service lines from its drinking water distribution system, and have provided key public health services.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">The Petitioners are encouraged by the latest lead sampling results in Benton Harbor indicating that lead levels may finally be lowering after at least three years of being above the federal action level. However, high amounts of lead that can present significant health risks, particularly to infants, children, and pregnant mothers, still exist in Benton Harbor’s tap water. Additionally, since the environmental and community organizations filed their emergency petition, it has come to our knowledge that the Benton Harbor water treatment plant has long been operating in violation of federal drinking water standards regarding the surface water treatment rules, specifically regarding disinfection and filtration, which has created cause for concern that Benton Harbor's tap water may be contaminated with bacteria as well as lead. These violations were the primary focus of a unilateral administrative order executed by the U.S. EPA in early November which requires Benton Harbor to take a number of actions to ensure its water treatment plant complies with the Safe Drinking Water Act.</span></p></div></div><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 11pt;">1</span></p></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">As work continues to address the many issues in Benton Harbor’s water system, the actions taken to ensure all Benton Harbor residents have safe drinking water will change. Benton Harbor residents do not want to rely on bottled water forever. However, the slow response to Benton Harbor’s water crisis has led many residents to distrust their tap water and it will take time to rebuild that trust. It is our hope that Benton Harbor residents will eventually be able to use point-of-use water filters with full confidence that their filtered water is safe and eventually ultimately will be able to drink water straight from their tap again without fear or apprehension. To rebuild the public’s confidence in their tap water, it is important that we move forward with caution and that we affirmatively ensure and confirm that water provided through point-of-use filters is safe from lead while also ensuring issues at the treatment plant are not causing additional contamination issues that filters cannot address.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">As such, the Petitioners are recommending the following actions – referred to as the Benton Harbor Safe Water Plan - to ensure that all residents continue to have access to safe drinking water and to repair their broken trust in the local, state, and federal government:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">1.) ContinueMakingFreeBottledWaterConvenientlyandWidelyAvailabletoAllBentonHarbor Residents</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">While relying on bottled water for all drinking and cooking needs is not easy, many Benton Harbor residents are not likely to trust the water coming out of their tap. Rebuilding this trust will take time and is dependent on a government response that centers community concerns. Additionally, lead is still present in Benton Harbor’s tap water at levels that present a high risk to infants, children, and pregnant mothers. Many mothers must continue to rely on bottled water to mix with powdered baby formula. Even after all lead service lines are replaced by the spring of 2023, there is still the risk that residual amounts of lead from lead service lines will remain for several months. Additionally, there will still be lead in household plumbing in many Benton Harbor homes. It is important that even at the time when water data indicate it is appropriate to transition to the use of point-of-use filters, that bottled water remain conveniently and widely available to all residents who prefer bottled water as their reliable source of safe drinking water.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">Action: </span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Continue to make free bottled water available for all Benton Harbor residents until all of the following conditions are met:</span></p><ul style="list-style-type: none;"><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● At least 6 months after all lead service lines in Benton Harbor have been replaced;</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● The Benton Harbor water system has demonstrated full compliance with the Safe</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Drinking Water Act, and;</span></p></li></ul></div></div><img alt="page2image64909888" height="0.720000" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/6b88d589-fc58-4154-81b3-5ea391dc2a6c" width="51.360000" /> <img alt="page2image64903936" height="0.720000" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/a2a46e87-9397-40b8-b101-6199f4b82178" width="49.920000" /><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 11pt;">2</span></p></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 3"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● The Benton Harbor water system implements the optimal corrosion control treatment to address the risk posed by lead in household plumbing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">2.) ConsideringtheBentonHarborwatertreatmentplantiscurrentlyoperatinginviolationofthe Safe Drinking Water Act, require the Benton Harbor water treatment plant to come into full compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and require a demonstration that point-of-use filters are effective at removing lead before providing Benton Harbor residents with point-of-use filters certified for lead reduction as well as instructions for filter installation and maintenance</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">For the past several months, the U.S. EPA has been studying the effectiveness of faucet-mount and pitcher water filters at reducing lead in Benton Harbor’s tap water. However, Benton Harbor’s water system issues go beyond lead. In November, the EPA executed a unilateral administrative order requiring Benton Harbor to make numerous repairs to its water treatment plant to ensure it is properly disinfecting and filtering the water to prevent potential bacteria contamination. The point of use water filters being studied in Benton Harbor are not capable of removing bacteria contamination.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">We believe point-of-use filters in combination with convenient and widely available access to bottled water can play a key role in ensuring Benton Harbor residents have safe drinking water. However, we must first affirmatively ensure that point-of-use filters are effective at addressing the range of lead levels in Benton Harbor’s water system and ensure that the Benton Harbor treatment plant is in compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act requirements meant to prevent bacteria contamination given that such contaminants cannot be removed by point-of-use filters.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">Action: </span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Before distributing water filters and recommending them as a reliable source of safe drinking water in Benton Harbor, it must be demonstrated that:</span></p><ul style="list-style-type: none;"><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Benton Harbor is complying with public notification requirements regarding its ongoing violation of disinfection profiling and benchmarking requirements, as well as other treatment technique requirements, which ensure water systems implement proper disinfection treatments to control </span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">Cryptosporidium, Giardia, </span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">and viruses. At the very least, this should include complying with the public notification requirements required under the federal and Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, which includes issuing a public notice to every household, either by mail or direct delivery, every 3 months until the violation is resolved that describes the violation, the potential adverse health effects, the population at risk, and when the supply expects to return to compliance;</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Benton Harbor’s water treatment plant is meeting all other Safe Drinking Water Act requirements;</span></p></li></ul></div></div><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 11pt;">3</span></p></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 4"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><ul style="list-style-type: none;"><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Benton Harbor has complied with all requirements provided in federal and state administrative or other enforcement orders regarding the federal and state Safe Drinking Water Act, including the U.S. EPA’s Unilateral Administrative Order and EGLE’s Administrative Consent Order; and</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Filter study results indicate point-of-use filters meet or exceed the NSF 53 filtration standard for lead reduction during the entire recommended filter use period in Benton Harbor’s water.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Once these criteria have been met, we believe it is appropriate to distribute point-of-use filters to residents while also providing them with the option to obtain free bottled water. However, a number of actions must be taken to ensure that filters are properly installed and used.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">Action: </span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Once the above criteria are met, distribute water filters via door-to-door delivery as follows:</span></p></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: none;"><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Water filters must be certified to meet the ANSI/NSF standard 53 for lead reduction and ANSI/NSF standard 42 for particulate reduction;</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Water filters should be distributed to each resident via door-to-door deliveries with the option of in-house installation assistance and hands-on education;</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Instructional materials on the proper installation and maintenance of filters as well as public education materials describing the health risks of consuming unfiltered tap water, the health effects of lead exposure, the effectiveness of filters at removing lead if properly installed and maintained, and information about obtaining replacement filters must be provided, and;</span></p></li><li><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">● Benton Harbor residents must be paid to assist with door-to-door filter distribution and education.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">While progress is being made to ensure all Benton Harbor residents have access to safe drinking water, there is still a lot of work to do to not only ensure Benton Harbor’s tap water is safe but also to rebuild resident’s trust in their tap water. Rebuilding trust will take time and the government response must center the community, transparency, and public health.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">We respectfully request a response to this letter by 5 p.m. on Monday, February 18</span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: 3pt;">th</span><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">. We are also available to discuss the details of this letter in greater depth at your convenience.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Sincerely,</span></p></li></ul></div></div><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 11pt;">4</span></p></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 5"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: PalatinoLinotype; font-size: 11pt;">Nick Leonard<br />Great Lakes Environmental Law Center 313-782-3372 | nicholas.leonard@glelc.org</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Submitted On Behalf Of:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Reverend Edward Pinkney, President, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Benton Harbor Community Water Council</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Mary Brady Enerson, Michigan Director, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Clean Water Action</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca Meuninck, Ph.D.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Deputy Director</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Ecology Center</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Mona Monroe-Younis, Executive Director, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Nayyirah Shariff, Director, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Flint Rising<br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">FLOW (For Love Of Water)<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Jill Ryan, Executive Director, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Freshwater Future<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Jameela Maun, MA, Executive Director, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Jamesa Johnson Greer, Executive Director, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Maureen Taylor, State Chair, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Michigan Welfare Rights Organization<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Cyndi Roper, Michigan Senior Policy Advocate, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Natural Resources Defense Council </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Tabitha Williams, President, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Parents for Healthy Homes</span></p><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Sylvia Orduño, Organizer, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">People’s Water Board Coalition<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Elin Betanzo, Principal, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Safe Water Engineering, LLC<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Rhonda Anderson, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Sierra Club Michigan Chapter<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Melissa Mays, Coordinator, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Water You Fighting For<br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Monica Lewis-Patrick, President and CEO, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">We the People of Detroit</span></p></div></div><img alt="page5image64138496" height="27.600000" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/03a4cb5a-ab5b-4b3e-b1e3-a87dc49471ab" width="470.880000" /><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Amy Barto, M.Ed., President & Healthy Children Project Coordinator, </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan</span></p></div></div><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 11pt;">5</span></p></div></div></div>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-10560748527612469172022-02-19T16:45:00.003-05:002022-02-19T16:45:26.540-05:00Watchdogs come and go. Where's the clean tap water for Benton Harbor?<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/02/watchdog-to-probe-epa-handling-of-benton-harbor-lead-tainted-water.html</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b>Watchdog to probe EPA handling of Benton Harbor </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b>lead-tainted water</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Updated: Feb. 19, 2022 | Published: Feb. 18, 2022.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 32px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">‘We have a national crisis here, the urgency is not happening,’; Benton Harbor residents speak out after elevated levels of lead found in the water</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 32px; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #262626; text-align: left;">By </b><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2; text-align: left;"><b><a href="http://www.mlive.com/staff/gellison/posts.html" style="color: #1155cc; text-align: left;">Garret Ellison | gellison@mlive.com</a> </b></span><span style="color: #1f1f1f; text-align: left;">BENTON HARBOR, MI — A federal watchdog announced an investigation into the government’s handling of lead-tainted tap water in Benton Harbor, a majority Black city of 9,800 with high poverty in southwest Michigan which has been relying on bottled water for the past five months.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated an audit on Friday, Feb. 18, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-02/_epaoig_notificationmemo_2-18-22_lead.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">stating in a letter</span></a> to agency administrators that it would review whether a 2016 policy on “elevation” of critical public health issues was followed.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The investigation follows a <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/10/we-get-looked-over-a-lot-benton-harbor-water-crisis-echoes-the-past.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">season of upheaval in Benton Harbor</span></a>, where the state health department began urging people to use bottled water following three years of high lead results and <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/broken-machines-lost-records-epa-finds-benton-harbor-water-plant-in-disarray.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">chronic operational problems at the water plant.</span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It also follows a <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/benton-harbor-sdwa-petition-20210909.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">petition</span></a> filed with EPA in September by a group of community advocates who sought a federal intervention in Benton Harbor, which was under state-appointed emergency financial management from 2010 to 2016.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Those advocates welcomed the investigation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">“For years, Benton Harbor residents said the water was contaminated and for years we were ignored,” said Rev. Edward Pinkney, a local faith leader and president of Benton Harbor Community Water Council, who was among the petitioners. An investigation into what the EPA did and did not do for this environmental justice community is long overdue.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In a letter to Radhika Fox, assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Water, and Debra Shore, administrator for EPA Region 5, the inspector general’s office indicated the investigation is part of a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/office-inspector-general/report-epas-fiscal-year-2022-top-management-challenges" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">broader effort</span></a> to improve how EPA addresses environmental injustices to historically marginalized communities.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The letter requested copies of training materials and instructions to Region 5 staff about the 2016 memorandum, “Policy on Elevation of Critical Public Health Issues,” all Benton Harbor-related complaints from the EPA drinking water hotline and any correspondence about their resolution.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">“The anticipated benefits of this audit are to determine if the EPA can improve the speed at which public health protections are delivered to communities facing imminent and substantial public health risks,” wrote Michael Davis, a director with the inspector general.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The agency said it would cooperate with the investigation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">“No family should ever have to worry about the water coming from their tap and the Benton Harbor community is no exception,” said EPA Region 5 spokesperson Taylor Gillespie. “EPA is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to clean drinking water and addressing lead in drinking water. We always cooperate fully with the Inspector General and we look forward to their review.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In November, the <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/epa-orders-benton-harbor-to-fix-troubled-drinking-water-system.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">EPA ordered Benton Harbor to fix its troubled drinking water plant</span></a> following a September inspection that found <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/broken-machines-lost-records-epa-finds-benton-harbor-water-plant-in-disarray.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">alarming breakdowns</span></a> with the chlorine disinfection treatment used to kill harmful pathogens.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In October, chronically elevated lead levels in Benton Harbor’s water gained widespread attention when the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/10/benton-harbor-residents-urged-to-use-bottled-water-amid-lead-crisis.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">urged city residents to switch to bottled water </span></a>while the EPA analyzed tap filters that officials began distributing in 2019.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The EPA is expected to release final results from a study on the effectiveness of those filters this month.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Benton Harbor water began testing above the 15 parts-per-billion (ppb) federal action level in <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2018/10/lead_advisory_issued_in_benton.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">October 2018.</span></a> Since then, lead remained consistently high in subsequent testing, between 22- and 32-ppb, prompting escalating concern among community advocates who began to question the effectiveness of the state’s efforts to add and adjust corrosion treatment.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Corrosion inhibiting chemicals like orthophosphate are added to water systems to coat the inside of lead service lines in the distribution network and prevent the heavy metal from flaking and leaching into the water.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Lead is a potent neurotoxin that experts say has no safe level of exposure. High amounts can cause brain and nervous system damage, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems and hearing and speech problems. Exposure has also been tied to lower IQ, decreased attention span and school performance in children.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In December, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) said six month testing results finally <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/12/lead-levels-dropping-in-benton-harbor-water-regulators-say.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">showed a reduction in lead levels</span></a>.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In the meantime, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration drew <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/theres-a-water-crisis-in-benton-harbor-is-this-gretchen-whitmers-flint.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">criticism and scrutiny</span></a> from Republicans and some advocacy circles for allowing another majority Black impoverished city to struggle with lead-tainted water after the Flint crisis.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Whitmer, a Democrat who is facing re-election this year, <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/10/whitmer-seeks-114m-for-benton-harbor-lead-pipe-removal.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">pledged</span></a> to see all the city’s lead service lines removed by April 2023 and has sent bottled water, enhanced services, grant funding and other state government aid.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Lead line removals are expected to accelerate this spring after the city commission <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/02/in-benton-harbor-lead-pipe-crews-battle-cold-and-the-unexpected.html" style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;">approved $33 million</span></a> in contracts with five excavation companies. The state says bottled water will remain available until all the lead pipes are removed.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">“It’s unthinkable that after the Flint crisis, another majority Black community had to wait for years before emergency action was taken when high levels of lead were found in the drinking water,” said Cyndi Roper, senior policy advocate with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Michigan. “It’s reassuring that the EPA is investigating what happened in Benton Harbor, because we cannot let this happen to another community ever again.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Times; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b>Related stories:</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2022/02/advocates-call-on-whitmer-to-take-action-on-environmental-justice-issues.html" style="color: #1155cc;">Advocates urge Whitmer to act on environmental justice<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/02/in-benton-harbor-lead-pipe-crews-battle-cold-and-the-unexpected.html" style="color: #1155cc;">Lead pipe removal crew battles cold and the unexpected<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/12/lead-levels-dropping-in-benton-harbor-water-regulators-say.html" style="color: #1155cc;">EGLE says lead levels dropping in BH water<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/12/150k-in-benton-harbor-water-bills-forgiven-through-federal-grant.html" style="color: #1155cc;">$150k in BH water bills forgiven through grant<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/01/after-2021-water-woes-michigan-readies-for-billions-in-fix-money.html" style="color: #1155cc;">After 2021 water woes, Michigan readies for billions to fix<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/12/epa-promises-fixes-to-trump-era-lead-water-rule-but-lets-it-commence.html" style="color: #1155cc;">EPA promises fixes to Trump-era lead water rule<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/benton-harbor-is-not-flint-emails-show-fight-between-citys-water-chief-and-state-regulators.html" style="color: #1155cc;">Emails show fight between EGLE, BH water chief<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #134eb2;"></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #134eb2; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/11/theres-a-water-crisis-in-benton-harbor-is-this-gretchen-whitmers-flint.html" style="color: #1155cc;">Is Benton Harbor Gretchen Whitmer’s Flint?</a></span></p>Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13341467.post-40886890656313342622022-01-18T11:02:00.008-05:002022-01-19T10:51:43.336-05:00We can learn about the Benton Harbor water crisis from this new bombshell story<p> <a class="dcr-p2g6s3" data-component="series" data-link-name="article series" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/americas-dirty-divide" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: transparent -6px 0px 0px 0px, transparent 6px 0px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c70000; display: inline; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">America's dirty divide</span></a></p><aside class="dcr-hfp9tp" data-gu-name="title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; grid-column-end: title; grid-column-start: title; grid-row-end: title; grid-row-start: title; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-10jdkim" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1u8qly9" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-q9y0k5" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="dcr-l6t30p" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="dcr-1l72qgw" data-component="section" data-link-name="article section" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/flint-water-crisis" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c70000; display: block; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Flint water crisis</span></a></span></div></div></div></aside><div class="dcr-qpwrb4" data-gu-name="border" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; grid-column-end: border; grid-column-start: border; grid-row-end: border; grid-row-start: border; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-17igkm0" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><div class="dcr-1nupfq9" data-gu-name="headline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; grid-column-end: headline; grid-column-start: headline; grid-row-end: headline; grid-row-start: headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-krkkhw" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1dabe76" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="dcr-125vfar" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revealed: the Flint water poisoning charges that never came to light</h1><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: bold;">The former criminal prosecution team investigating the Flint water crisis was building a racketeering case against state officials. Then the team was dismantled</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><address aria-label="Contributor info" data-component="meta-byline" data-link-name="byline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1mp5s8u" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c70000; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jordan Chariton and Charlie LeDuff</div></address><div class="dcr-km9fgb" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1i26ibw" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><label class="dcr-hn0k3p" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mon 17 Jan 2022 </label></div><div class="dcr-1i26ibw" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><label class="dcr-hn0k3p" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></label></div><div class="dcr-1i26ibw" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><label class="dcr-hn0k3p" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">A team of prosecutors and investigators leading the investigation into the <a data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/flint-water-crisis" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c70000; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Flint water crisis</a> from 2016 through 2018 were assembling a racketeering case against the architects of a bond deal that residents and experts say sparked the health disaster, sources familiar with the criminal investigation have told the Guardian.</p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The case – which would have come under the Rico (racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations) laws often used to charge organized crime groups – was widespread and set to implicate additional state officials who played a role in the poisoning of Flint, according to these sources.</p><p id="sign-in-gate" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But when the team was suddenly broken up and the investigation restarted with a new set of investigators, the Rico case never materialized.</p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212;">What happened? Critics point to the </span><a data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/michigan" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c70000; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Michigan</a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212;"> attorney general, Dana Nessel.</span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212;"><br /></span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212;">Full story:</span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/17/flint-water-poisoning-charges</span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">Also here:</span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">https://portside.org/2022-01-18/revealed-flint-water-poisoning-charges-never-came-light#:~:text=Revealed%3A%20The%20Flint%20Water%20Poisoning%20Charges%20That%20Never,against%20state%20officials.%20Then%20the%20team%20was%20dismantled.</span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="dcr-o5gy41" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p></label></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="dcr-pn0kqp" data-gu-name="media" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; grid-column-end: media; grid-column-start: media; grid-row-end: media; grid-row-start: media; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10633200962169355046noreply@blogger.com