Mich. governor calls $600M Flint water deal a step to amends
LANSING, Mich. — A $600 million deal between the state of Michigan and Flint residents harmed by lead-tainted water is a step toward making amends for a disaster that upended life in the poor, majority-Black city, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday.
State officials and lawyers for Flint residents announced the settlement, which Attorney General Dana Nessel said likely would be the largest in Michigan history, with tens of thousands of potential claimants. It’s designed primarily to benefit children, who were most vulnerable to the lead that fouled drinking water after Flint switched its source to save money in 2014 while under supervision of a state financial manager.
“What happened in Flint should have never happened, and financial compensation with this settlement is just one of the many ways we can continue to show our support for the city of Flint and its families,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said.
Several judges must approve the agreement, which is intended to resolve all claims against the state. Residents can decline to take part and file separate lawsuits, but attorneys involved in the negotiations said they would urge their clients to participate.
“It’s not perfect. But it is fair, it’s reasonable, it’s equitable,” said attorney Michael Pitt.
Suits also have been filed against the city, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and two engineering consulting firms.
Nearly 80% will be distributed to claimants who were minors, with 64.5% going to those who were 6 or younger when first exposed to the contaminated water. About 30,000 children lived in Flint at the time.
California wildfires: More than two dozen major fires were scorching California on Thursday and taxing the state’s firefighting capacity, sparked by an unprecedented lightning siege that dropped nearly 11,000 strikes over several days.
The fires have destroyed 175 structures and are threatening 50,000 more, said Daniel Berlant, an assistant deputy director with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In all, 33 civilians and firefighters have been injured.
Most of the activity is in Northern California, where fires have chewed through nearly 500 square miles of brushland, rural areas, canyon country and dense forest surrounding San Francisco.
More than 10,000 California firefighters are on the front lines, but fire officials in charge of each of the major fire complexes say they are strapped for resources. Some firefighters were working 72-hour shifts instead of the usual 24 hours. The state has requested 375 engines and crew from other states.
Fauci surgery: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, underwent surgery Thursday to remove a growth from his vocal cord that was causing his notably raspy voice.
Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, underwent outpatient surgery and was home and resting, an institute spokesperson told The Associated Press.
Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has become the nation’s leading scientific voice on the coronavirus pandemic.
Polyps are bumps that can form on the vocal cords and cause hoarseness.
England bombing: The brother of the suicide bomber who set off an explosion at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds, was sentenced Thursday to a minimum of 55 years in prison.
Hashem Abedi, 23, had denied helping plan the attack at Manchester Arena but was found guilty of murder, attempted murder and conspiring to cause explosions. His sentencing had been postponed due to travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
His elder brother Salman Abedi set off the bomb in the arena’s foyer at the end of the concert, as fans — including thousands of children and young people — were leaving. He died in the explosion.
Hashem Abedi refused to attend court for the two-day sentencing hearing.
Judge Jeremy Baker said that the two brothers were “equally culpable for the deaths and injuries caused by the explosion.”
Belarus strikes: In a new challenge to Belarus’ authoritarian ruler, hundreds of employees of state television have gone on strike amid a rising tide of protests, calling for his resignation after a vote the opposition saw as rigged.
The journalists’ action this week has shaken the government’s control of the media, helping further erode President Alexander Lukashenko’s grip after 26 years of rule.
Vyacheslav Lomonosov, one of Belarusian TV employees who joined the labor action, said he and his colleagues could no longer tolerate an official ban on reporting the truth about a brutal crackdown on protests that has stoked international outrage.
Police brutally dispersed massive protests challenging Lukashenko’s victory in the Aug. 9 vote with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs, injuring hundreds and arresting nearly 7,000. At least three protesters died. Many of the detainees reported savage beatings and other abuse in custody.
The walkout of about 300 employees of Belarusian state TV has dealt a particularly painful blow to the Belarusian leader, who has relentlessly stifled independent media since coming to power in 1994 and relied on state-controlled television and other media to shape public opinion.
Boris Goretsky, vice -president of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, said 72 journalists were detained while covering the protests.
Dead chicks in the mail: At least 4,800 chicks shipped to Maine farmers through the U.S. Postal Service have arrived dead in recent weeks after rapid cuts hit the federal mail carrier’s operations, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said.
Pingree, a Maine Democrat, is raising the issue of the dead chicks and the losses farms are facing in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and U.S. Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sonny Perdue, The Portland Press Herald reported.
Pauline Henderson, who owns Pine Tree Poultry in New Sharon, Maine, told the newspaper all 800 chicks sent to her from a Pennsylvania hatchery were dead.
Thousands of birds that moved through the Postal Service’s processing center in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, were also dead, impacting farms in Maine and New Hampshire, Henderson said.
The Postal Service is the only entity that ships live chicks and other small animals and has done so since 1918, according to the service’s website.