The U.S. House Oversight Committee grilled federal and State of Michigan officials Wednesday on their roles in the poisoning of Flint’s water. As you would expect, the finger-pointing was impressive. “It’s the question of the day,” said Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Director Keith Creagh. “Who made what decision when?” That question may be
Ever seen this? Any dispute arising from the performance of this contract will be submitted to binding arbitration. Employee waives all rights to a trial in a court of law. If you’ve gotten a job or a credit card in the last several years, you probably have seen this bit of legal bullying. And you’ve
When future generations look back, if future generations there will be, they will see a time when corporations ruled the earth and, in a little over a century, brought its devastation. Rising sea levels, not to mention tides and storms, will inundate countless seaside cities worldwide in our children’s lifetime. Acidification of the oceans is
In a recent Senate report and subsequent op/ed piece in the New York Times, Senator Elizabeth Warren rightly accuses the Obama administration of having been “shockingly weak” on holding corporations accountable for their crimes. “The failure to punish big corporations or their executives when they break the law undermines the foundations of this great country,”
Think you’re mad about the Flint water crisis? Have a seat and take a deep breath. Crain’s Automotive News ran a story on Sunday revealing that a Flint General Motors plant has avoided using the city’s corrosive water since December of 2014. It turns out that Flint’s water was corroding GM’s metal parts. “The water
He waves his hand out at the cameras, “Show the crowd. Go ahead and show em.” Waves his hand again, “Whatever.” We hear them cheer, the crowd we can’t see. They cheer the bravado, and they cheer for the “whatever,” that adolescent dismissal of the outside world. They don’t matter after all, those cable news
What went wrong with the meeting Wednesday night was miscommunication. That there was no busload of people from Flint was disappointing, but could be overcome. That the teachers present—if there were teachers present—did not choose to speak removed from the evening some of the feeling of direct contact with the issue, but not entirely. For
The greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found, whose crimes have gone unpunished now, who walk the streets as free men now, they brought death to my hometown. –Bruce Springsteen Much ado about nothing. That sums up the media response to the news that bond insurer Ambac Financial Group
This is not your father’s working class. On Wednesday evening at Detroit’s Wayne State University, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) held an “emergency meeting” that was to feature residents of Flint, whose water has been poisoned with lead and other contaminants, and Detroit Public Schools (DPS) teachers who have been staging “sickouts” for the past
They are untouchable. Unlike you and I, who can be held legally accountable for our negligence and wrongdoings, they are beyond the reach of the law. Unlike those wrongly arrested who are forced to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit in order to avoid going on trial for crimes with even longer