Environment, Michigan, State

Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts

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CNN Library
Thu February 2, 2017

(CNN)Here is a look at the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting measures led to tainted drinking water that contained lead and other toxins.

Facts:
Flint, located 70 miles north of Detroit, is a city of 98,310, where 41.2% of residents live below the poverty line and the median household income is $24,862, according to the US Census Bureau. The median household income for the rest of Michigan is $49,576. The city is 56.6% African-American.

Flint once thrived as the home of the nation’s largest General Motors plant. The city’s economic decline began during the 1980s, when GM downsized its sprawling industrial complex.
In 2011, the state of Michigan took over Flint’s finances after an audit projected a $25 million deficit. Even though Flint’s water supply fund was $9 million in the red, officials were using some of this money to cover shortfalls in its general fund. A receivership ended in April 2015, when the water fund was declared solvent and the remaining deficit was eliminated by an emergency loan.
In order to reduce the water fund shortfall, the city switched water sources in 2014. While a new pipeline connecting Flint with Lake Huron was under construction, the city turned to the Flint River as a water source during the two-year transition.

The Flint River had been the city’s primary water source decades earlier, but Flint switched to Lake Huron in 1967, purchasing its supply through the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
Contaminated Water Supply:

Historically, the water in the Flint River downstream of Flint has been of poor quality, and was severely degraded during the 1970s, due to “the presence of fecal coliform bacteria, low dissolved oxygen, plant nutrients, oils, and toxic substances.” In 2001, the state ordered the monitoring and cleanup of 134 polluted sites within the Flint River watershed, including industrial complexes, landfills and farms laden with pesticides and fertilizer.

According to a class-action lawsuit, the state Department of Environmental Quality was not treating the Flint River water with an anti-corrosive agent, in violation of federal law. The river water

Continue reading Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts →

Politics, Republican Party, Trump, US

Kellyanne Conway Just Humiliated Herself And The Trump Team Live On The Today Show

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BY BRETT BOSE
PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 14, 2017


President Donald Trump’s freakish mouthpiece, Kellyanne Conway, is known as a master of political spin. You can’t trust a word that comes out of her mouth, and she constantly changes the direction interviews are going while avoiding the tough questions with fanciful rhetoric. But it also cannot be denied that she is good at her job…

That is, until today.

In the wake of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s resignation yesterday, Conway was busy trying to defuse the situation via her preferred medium of television interviews. However, even Trump’s favorite deceptive spinster couldn’t argue her way out of the hole that Flynn has dug for himself and Trump administration.

Rest of article including video :  Continue reading Kellyanne Conway Just Humiliated Herself And The Trump Team Live On The Today Show →

Canada, Economy, Politics, Politics, Trump, US

Canadian companies now eyeing Canada-EU trade outcome

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ANDY BLATCHFORD
OTTAWA — The Canadian Press
Published

Feeling a sense of relief following Donald Trump’s remarks on the future of U.S. trade with Canada, business leaders are now hoping for a second wave of positive news out of Europe.

Corporate Canada is shifting its focus to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip across the Atlantic later this week.

Mr. Trudeau’s visit is expected to coincide with the European Union’s ratification vote on its free-trade deal with Canada, an agreement nearly scuttled last fall due to opposition from a small region in Belgium.

“The Prime Minister is now off to hopefully put [the Canada-EU free-trade deal] in his pocket and bring it home from Europe, which would also be good news,” John Manley, the president of the Business Council of Canada, said in an interview.

Canada is expected to ratify the deal after the European Parliament gives its okay.

Continue reading Canadian companies now eyeing Canada-EU trade outcome →

Fake News, Politics

How two unemployed guys got rich off Facebook, fake news and an army of Trump supporters

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By TERRENCE MCCOY
The Washington Post – Mon., Nov. 21, 2016

Jobless in May, Paris Wade and Ben Goldman were ruling an empire built on Facebook shares by the time of the vote, influencing millions with rumours, exaggeration, conspiracy theories and lies.

Paris Wade, left, and Ben Goldman at their apartment in Long Beach, Calif.
Paris Wade, left, and Ben Goldman at their apartment in Long Beach, Calif.  (STUART PALLEY / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)  

 

LONG BEACH, CALIF.—Fewer than 2,000 readers are on his website when Paris Wade, 26, awakens from a nap, reaches for his laptop and thinks he needs to, as he puts it, “feed” his audience. “Man, no one is covering this TPP thing,” he says after seeing an article suggesting that President Obama wants to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership before he leaves office. Wade, a modern-day digital opportunist, sees an opportunity. He begins typing a story.

“CAN’T TRUST OBAMA,” he writes as the headline, then pauses. His audience hates Obama and loves president-elect Donald Trump, and he wants to capture that disgust and cast it as a drama between good and evil. He resumes typing: “Look At Sick Thing He Just Did To STAB Trump In The Back …”

Ten minutes and nearly 200 words later, he is done with a story that is all opinion, innuendo and rumour. He types at the bottom, “Comment ‘DOWN WITH THE GLOBALISTS!’ below if you love this country,” publishes the story to his website, LibertyWritersNews.com, and then pulls up the Facebook page he uses to promote the site, which in six months has collected 805,000 followers and brought in tens of millions of page views. “WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN!” he writes, posting the article. “#SHARE this 1 million times, patriots!” Then he looks at a nearby monitor that shows the site’s analytics, and watches as the readers pour in.

“Down with the globalists,” writes a woman in Cape Girardeau, Mo., one of 3,192 people now on the website, 1,244 of whom are reading the story he just posted.

“Down with the globalists!” writes a man in Las Vegas.

“DOWN WITH THE GLOBALISTS !!!” writes a woman in Helena, Mont.

At a time of continuing discussion over the role that hyperpartisan websites, fake news and social media play in the divided America of 2016, LibertyWritersNews illustrates how websites can use Facebook to tap into a surging ideology, quickly go from nothing to influencing millions of people and make big profits in the process. Six months ago, Wade and his business partner, Ben Goldman, were unemployed restaurant workers. Now they’re at the helm of a website that gained 300,000 Facebook followers in October alone and say they are making so much money that they feel uncomfortable talking about it because they don’t want people to start asking for loans.

Continue reading How two unemployed guys got rich off Facebook, fake news and an army of Trump supporters →

Politics, Republican Party, Trump, US

Trump knew of Flynn Russia phone call issues ‘weeks ago’

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24 Hours – was Flynn’s tenure a record?

President Donald Trump knew weeks ago there were problems with Michael Flynn’s Russia phone calls, a White House spokesman has said.

The president had been “reviewing and evaluating this issue on a daily basis”, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at a news conference.

Mr Trump had previously said he was unaware of the reports about Mr Flynn.

But he ultimately asked for Mr Flynn’s resignation based on a “trust issue” and not a legal one, Mr Spicer added.

Republicans have joined congressional calls for an investigation into Mr Flynn’s contacts with Russia.

“The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable incidents is what led the president to ask General Flynn for his resignation,” Mr Spicer said.

Mr Flynn resigned over allegations he discussed US sanctions with a Russian envoy before Donald Trump took office.
The retired army lieutenant-general initially denied having discussed sanctions with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, and Vice-President Mike Pence publicly denied the allegations on his behalf.
Mr Flynn later said he could not recall whether he discussed the sanctions.
When exactly did Trump know? Continue reading Trump knew of Flynn Russia phone call issues ‘weeks ago’ →

Of Interest

Deer runs amok inside supermarket, gets wrangled by shoppers

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Associated Press
In this Monday, Feb. 6, 2017, photo provided by Tonya Beck, a deer is subdued after it smashed through the glass entrance and ran amok in a Giant grocery store in the borough of Manchester, Pa. Once surprised shoppers figured out what the noise was, they worked together to wrangle the animal and force it outside. (Tonya Beck via AP)

MANCHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Pandemonium broke out at a southern Pennsylvania supermarket when a rogue deer smashed through its glass entrance and briefly ran amok.

The doe burst into a Giant grocery store in the borough of Manchester on Monday, The York Daily Record reported (http://bit.ly/2lsjYCT ).

Once surprised shoppers figured out what the noise was, they worked together to wrangle the animal and force it outside.

Robert Beck III, of Conewago Township, was in the store at the time with his wife. He said he heard a loud bang then people screaming “Deer!” He caught a glimpse of the animal as it scampered toward the bakery section.

“When I seen it, it was game on,” he said.

An avid hunter, Beck grabbed the deer around its neck and forced it outside with help from two other men. The animal was in the store for about 50 seconds.

“That’s like a rodeo record,” Beck said, adding, “I think she was scared from all those people.”

Police generally advise the public not to get involved in animal control when wild animals venture into populated places.

___

Information from: York Daily Record, http://www.ydr.com

Original Article

Financial, Germany, International

Germany completes return of 300 tons of reserve gold from US

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Geir Moulson, Associated Press
Associated Press
Germany completes return of 300 tons of reserve gold from US

Various gold bars, are displayed in the German central bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. Germany’s central bank has completed an effort to bring home 300 tons of gold stashed in the United States, part of a plan to repatriate gold bars kept abroad during the Cold War. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

BERLIN (AP) — Germany has completed an effort to bring home 300 metric tons (330.7 tons) of gold stashed in the United States, part of a plan to repatriate gold bars kept abroad during the Cold War.

The German central bank said it brought 111 tons of gold back from the Federal Reserve in New York last year, concluding in September — the last of 300 tons slated for return.

“The transfers were carried out without any disruptions or irregularities,” said Carl-Ludwig Thiele, board member of the central bank, called Bundesbank.

Continue reading Germany completes return of 300 tons of reserve gold from US →

Trump

A Democratic Lawmaker Just Filed A Bill Requiring A Psychiatrist For Trump’s Mental Health

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Representative Ted Lieu (D-California) has decided that Trump’s dangerous rhetoric and erratic behavior, including some very questionable phone calls with foreign leaders and weird press conferences, is reason enough to have a psychiatrist on stand-by.

Lieu said that he and fellow lawmakers are concerned for the mental well-being of the president and that he deserves to have a specialist available at all times. Since 1928 the White House is required to have a physician present, but not a psychiatrist because of the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Lieu believes that Trump’s mental health is especially troubling because he has an obvious “disconnection from the truth.” This is particularly dangerous if that individual just so happens to be the leader of the free world.

It is not normal for the president of the United States, within 24 hours, to write about death and destruction and fake news and evil. The most troubling aspect of this is it is very clear he has a disconnection from the truth…the very first press conference he had in this administration, they could have talked about jobs or health care. They talked about crowd size. And then lied about it. It’s one of the most bizzare events i’ve witnessed in politics.

Trump’s mental state has been increasingly called into question due to his obvious lies and late-night Twitter rants. The man is completely detached from reality, seemingly because he can’t take any criticism or negativity at all. It’s unbelievable that a man who rejects facts in favor of his own idealized fiction and fantasies is supposedly qualified to be president. Not only that, but someone who is mentally ill now has the world’s greatest military at his fingertips. We live in dark and dangerous times.

Original Story

News for the 21st Century