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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2016)
Page 10 The Skanner December 21, 2016 News Emergency Managers Charged Over Flint’s Lead-Tainted Water Former key city officials charged with four crimes, including conspiracy and misconduct in office FLINT, Mich. — A criminal investigation of Flint’s lead-contam- inated water turned to former key officials at City Hall on Tuesday as Michigan’s attorney gen- eral announced charges against four people ac- cused of keeping resi- dents on a contaminated system that caused the crisis. Darnell Earley and Ger- ald Ambrose separately were state-appointed emergency managers in Flint in 2014-15 when the city was using the Flint River as a source of drinking water. Am- brose also served earlier as a financial adviser to the troubled town. They were charged with four crimes, includ- ing conspiracy and mis- conduct in office. How- ard Croft, Flint’s former public works director, “ AP PHOTO/CARLOS OSORIO By ED WHITE Associated Press Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette addresses a news conference, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, in Flint, Mich., where he charged two former State of Michigan Emergency Managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, with multiple 20-year felonies for their failure to protect the citizens of Flint from health hazards cased by contaminated drinking water. Schuette also charged Earley, Ambrose and Flint city employees Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson with felony counts of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses in the issuance of bonds to pay for a portion of the water project that led to the crisis. Flint to $85 million in bonds to join a new re- gional water pipeline to Lake Huron while at the needed to sell bonds to clean up a lagoon, Schuette said, but the money went as the city’s share to Kareg- nondi Water Au- thority to build the pipeline, which still is un- der construction. “This case is a classic bait-and-switch. ... The lime sludge lagoon was not an emergency,” said special prosecutor Todd Flood. During a news con- ference, there was no This case is a classic bait-and- switch. The lime sludge lagoon was not an emergency and Daugherty John- son, the former utilities director, were charged with conspiracy and false pretenses. Attorney General Bill Schuette said Earley and Ambrose committed same time using a city water plant that was not equipped to properly treat the river water be- fore it went to roughly 100,000 residents. They claimed that debt-burdened Flint allegation by Schuette that Earley and Ambrose personally gained from the bond deal or by keep- ing the Flint River as the source of water for Flint while the pipeline was being constructed. Flint’s water system became contaminated with lead because water from the river wasn’t treated for corrosion for 18 months, from April 2014 to October 2015. The water ate away at a protective coating inside old pipes and fixtures, re- leasing lead. Schuette said the inves- tigation has revealed a “fixation on finances and balance sheets” in Flint during that period. “This fixation has cost lives,” he said, noting that 12 people died from Legionnaires’ disease, which has been linked by experts to the river wa- ter. “This fixation came at the expense of protecting the health and safety of Flint. It’s all about num- bers over people, money over health.” Earley, Ambrose and Croft could not immedi- ately be reached for com- ment. They didn’t appear in court Tuesday. Johnson is “going to plead not guilty and we’re going to stand by that,” attorney Edwar Ze- ineh said. Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero released a state- ment, defending Am- brose as a “man of the highest character who would never knowing- ly endanger the public health.” The latest charges bring to 13 the number of people who have been charged in the investiga- tion of Flint water and the Legionnaires’ out- break. The other nine are eight current or former state employees and a water plant employee. Perhaps the most sig- nificant catch so far: Cor- rine Miller, Michigan’s former director of dis- ease control, pleaded no contest to willful neglect of duty in September. She said she was aware of dozens of cases of Le- gionnaires’ in the Flint area around the same time the city changed its water source, but she didn’t report it to the gen- eral public. “The investigation has continued to go up and go out. ... We are not at the end,” said former FBI agent Andy Arena, the lead investigator. Meanwhile, tests show Flint’s water quality is improving, although res- idents are urged to drink tap water only if it’s first run through a filter. Shipping cont’d from pg 9 National Retail Federation, an industry trade group. That means many more packages each year. UPS predicts global delivery volume during the holidays will rise 14 percent from last year to about 700 mil- lion packages. FedEx expects volume to rise about 10 percent. Meanwhile, the number of services for last-minute online orders keeps growing. Amazon has been expanding its Prime Now same-day delivery ser- vice, adding nine cities to reach 31 this year. It is using local delivery service providers and regular drivers as on-de- mand messengers. The service is cater- ing to last-minute shoppers by offering a “Procrastinator’s Delight” program that will deliver products up until 11:59 p.m. on Christmas Eve. PetSmart is offering same-day deliv- ery through startup Deliv. Uber is us- ing its network of contract drivers for same-day delivery of goods for small businesses in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. In addition, Amazon now lets peo- ple subscribe to its regular $99-a-year Prime program, which offers free two- day shipping, on a month-by-month basis.
