Governor faces racketeering suit over Flint water crisis

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Governor faces racketeering suit over Flint water crisis

Updated 7:17 pm, Wednesday, April 6, 2016

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Hundreds of residents of Flint, Michigan, filed a racketeering lawsuit Wednesday targeting Gov. Rick Snyder and other state and local officials over lead contamination of the city's drinking water.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Flint, the suit is one of many arising from the decision to switch the Flint supply from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in April 2014 to cut costs. The move was supposed to be temporary, until Flint could join a new water authority that would pipe water from Lake Huron.

The lawsuit accuses Snyder and others of hatching a "wrongful scheme" to reduce Flint's indebtedness by stopping the impoverished city from buying treated Lake Huron water from Detroit, instead of "invoking time tested, well-honed federal bankruptcy protections for restructuring the debts of municipalities."

. . .

State officials have acknowledged erroneously advising Flint officials not to treat the river water with anti-corrosive chemicals, and that not doing so enabled lead to leach from aging pipes and reach some homes, businesses and schools. Testing last fall showed that levels of lead in the blood of some children in the city rose after the water systems were switched.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Racketeering-suit-filed-against-Snyder-in-Flint-7231608.php

[silvershadow]

1. That guy is the epitome of The Peter Principle. nt

[corkhead]

4. He has done to Michigan what he did to Gateway

Snyder undertook an arrogant public policy experiment, underpinned by the ideological assumption that the "experience set" of corporate-style managers was superior to the checks and balances of democracy. This is why Flint happened.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-flint-michigan-water-rick-snyder-milbank-perspec-20160126-story.html

[tclambert]

2. Can we use the RICO laws against the entire Republican Party?

Michigan isn't the only place they've messed up. Wisconsin, Kansas, and Florida have suffered, also.

[chapdrum]

3. That'll always be the dream.

Too bad that millions still believe in the party's intellectual dishonesty and moral bankruptcy.

[Hekate]

5. I'd love to see ALEC dragged into a RICO suit, as they are the source of so much horrid....

.....legislation cropping up and getting passed throughout the country.

[Equinox Moon]

6. He'll be too busy in courtrooms to Gov. the State of Michigan

Better just step down now.

Yep.

That would be best.

[SCVDem]

7. What's the final connection?

What does Snyder gain from the managers and austerity programs and especially,
to commit mass crimes against humanity? I want to see how he profited.

Posted on a still working Gateway NV Series.

I swear I didn't know!

[Nitram]

8. Repubs consider budget-cutting proof of good management.

Just as long as the budget cuts only affect the poor and the middle class. He was hoping for a presidential bid based on his successful management of the state of Michigan as governor. I think we can safely assume that is no longer a possibility.

[tclambert]

9. "Governor Snyder, what had you hoped your legacy would be, now that the actual

legacy you will leave behind is as the governor who poisoned thousands of children?"