Detroit – A mess over billings and improper shutoffs has led to an $840,000 fine for DTE Energy.
State regulators approved the settlement earlier this month. Sally Talberg of the Michigan Public Service Commission says the commission has “great concern when utilities violated consumer protection rules.”
The investigation began a year ago, months after DTE began using a new billing system. The commission received complaints that power was being improperly shut off. More than 4,000 customers did not receive a proper shut-off notice for nonpayment.
DTE has agreed to refund all deposits and reconnection fees. The utility also will be audited over its shut-off procedures until 2020.
A group known as the Residential Customer Group watched the case and objected to the settlement. Michelle Rison says the fine isn’t high enough, especially when some shut-offs occurred during cold weather.
I wonder how many kids were snatched by CPS for not having any lights.
Within hours of DTE Energy cutting off service to the home because it had been hooked up illegally for months, two locks that had been placed by the utility on the electric meter box had been cut off — and power was restored.
The Detroit Fire Department is investigating whether that second illegal hookup led to the Tuesday deaths of three children – Travion Young, 5, Salena, 3, and Fantasia, 4 – after a blaze tore through the two-story home.
Very sad.
What saddened me the most were the comments left on this story.
There were those who blamed the big monster DTE and there were those who blamed the welfare queen.
I blame the tragic deaths of these three children on Michigan Lawmakers.
In Michigan, particularly Detroit, times are economically challenging, to say the least. Social resources are virtually gone. There is very little affordable, decent housing, so many times, a person will take what they can get and make the most of it, particularly when they have children.
Parents tend to do whatever they must to care and provide for their children, even if it means an illegal hook up, because if they do not, those are grounds for removal of the children and have them placed into foster care.
DTE did what it is suppose to do as a business. It did not receive payment of services and, justly, terminated services.
There was a loophole in the law.
Popular belief is that there is law on the books of Michigan that says the energy companies cannot turn off utilities in the winter. That is not the case.
Children fell through the loophole and through the social safety net to die.
There are more resources, advocacy and protection for senior than children in a family.
Notice, that I make the statement, "children in a family" because that would deem foster care, a welfare program, which is many times more costly to the public than helping with utilities and housing. I read the comments and cringed that people would condemn a person for being poor.
Each child removed costs taxpayers in the range of $10,000 to $150,000 a year, and many times much more depending on the classification of the case. I did not calculate staff, Medicaid services, courts, administration, training, buildings, fraud, waste and abuse. That would triple the numbers.
A monthly gas bill during the winter in Detroit is about $500. You do the math.
The lawmakers of Michigan need to obviate. This means to provide for the future. Michigan is going through a series of policy changes in Medicaid that would do just that. Perhaps the resources this family needed to prevent the deaths of these children.
The people need to redirect their outrage toward Michigan lawmakers and demand investments in resources for a profitable return of its future citizens.
The whole policy system allowed DTE and children to go though, with no consideration of the future.
I have to determine if she is just really dumb or brilliantly nefarious.
I am going with the former until evidence proves, otherwise.
All I can say is that this will be better than any kind of deposition one can creatively conjure.
Since I have an international audience in hand, I thought it would be optimal for me to request assistance:
On November 22, 2019, DTE came to an elderly woman's home, in her 70's with her sister in her 80's, to install a new gas line. They have lived there for 35 years. The workers busted the brick and foundation with sledgehammers, destroying the ventilation system for the water heater. The home is almost 100 years old. The workers even left their tools. We all called to request immediate, emergency assistance to repair the damage, but DTE refused to respond. State Senator Stephanie Chang just referred to constituency request for emergency help back to DTE, who never returned calls. Gretch's office was just rude and referred the matter to DTE, who never returned the call. As of this posting, there is still no hot water and they are sick. I was considering this an act of retaliation, just because it is a predictable pattern of practice when dealing with Michigan social welfare issues, but, hey, what do I know? I know nothing because no one will call back and help them. So much for that MLK humanitarian award....
Considering the fact that Gretch is not duly elected, she probably does not respond to humanitarian emergency requests for assistance because she is an illegitimate governor.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer gives a speech after receiving the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award Capturing that look of complete indifference to due process
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will give the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Feb. 4, six days after delivering her own State of the State speech in Lansing.
Whitmer will deliver the response beside U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, who will give a separate response in Spanish.
The response is usually given by an elected official whom opposition party officials tag as a rising star. Trump's speech will come one day after the Iowa caucuses and likely in the midst of the Senate impeachment trial.
Whitmer said the response would serve as an “exciting opportunity” to show Democrats “getting things done.”
“Across the country, Democrats are staying focused on building a stronger, more sustainable country for future generations,” Whitmer said. “As leaders, it’s our responsibility to ensure a safe, healthy future for our children and families, and that’s exactly what we’re working toward in Michigan."
But Republicans hit Whitmer's record as lackluster.
"She’s had ample time to make a difference for our state, but her past year in office has been nothing more than photo-op's and sound bites," said Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox. "Ultimately, Gretchen Whitmer's decision to side with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi makes it that much easier to give our state a new governor in 2022."
Whitmer rode to a 2018 victory in Michigan on a promise to “fix the damn roads,” but making good on the vow has proven difficult with divided government.
The first-term governor's proposal last year to increase the 26.3-cents-a-gallon gas tax by 45 cents was opposed by GOP leaders and effectively died in late August when House Minority Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, declared Whitmer's tax plan an “extreme” that likely wouldn't happen.
The debate over road funding options eventually led to a breakdown in negotiations with GOP legislative leaders.
When the Republican-controlled Legislature sent the governor a budget that shifted existing funds from other departments for a one-time $375 million payment toward roads, the governor made 147 line item vetoes, slashing $947 million from the state budget and transferring another $625 million within departments.
"Caught in the middle of Whitmer's political budget retribution were at-risk students, people with autism, public safety, and healthcare services," said Tori Sachs, executive director of the Michigan Rising Action political action committee. "Our state and nation deserve better."
The Democratic governor did slash funding for charter schools, an autism alliance, rural health care and county road patrols, but most of it was restored after negotiations with Republican lawmakers.
Whitmer made Michigan the first state in the nation to declare a ban on flavored vaping products out of concern for youth usage and an uptick in lung injuries, but the ban was halted by the courts amid a challenge from vape shop owners.
But her first year in office included victories, including the signing of bipartisan legislation that reformed Michigan's no-fault auto insurance, changes that had eluded consensus for about 40 years. Some Democrats criticized her for signing the Republican-inspired legislation.
Whitmer has “rolled up her sleeves” during her more time in public service, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a Friday statement with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announcing Whitmer’s selection.
“Her decades of hard work on behalf of the people should serve as a model for our nation,” Pelosi said. “She’s a forward-looking leader who is laser-focused on solving problems for everyday Michiganders and is uniquely qualified to deliver Democrats’ message of progress for all Americans.”
Whitmer’s efforts in Michigan are a “model for public servants everywhere,” Schumer said.
"Whether it's pledging to 'Fix the Damn Roads' or investing in climate solutions, Governor Whitmer's vision for the future is exactly what this country needs, and I'm thrilled she is giving the Democratic response,” he said.
As a "fierce leader" for Michigan's families, Whitmer will highlight how Trump's "broken promises have devastated our state," said Lavora Barnes, chairwoman for the Michigan Democratic Party.
"Gov. Whitmer was critical to our party’s success up and down the ballot in 2018, and I look forward to working with her this year as we fight to beat Donald Trump, re-elect Gary Peters to the Senate and turn every corner of Michigan blue," Barnes said.
Democratic former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Detroit appears to be the last Michigan politician to have given a State of the Union response, according to U.S. Senate records. In 1984, Levin was one of several members of Congress on a panel who responded to then-President Ronald Reagan's address in a partly taped and partly live program.
Then-House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Grand Rapids, a Michigan native, gave the first televised response to a State of the Union address in a 30-minute rebuttal alongside Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen to President Lyndon Johnson's 1966 and 1967 addresses, according to U.S. Senate records.
"Today, thanks to the efforts of Dirksen and Ford, the opposition response is anticipated and discussed almost as much as the president’s speech," according to the Senate Historical Office.
The last sitting governor to give an official response to a State of the Union speech was then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican who responded to then-President Barack Obama’s speech in 2016. Haley was Trump's United Nations ambassador until deciding to step down at the end of 2018.
Democrat Stacey Abrams, a former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, gave the response to Trump’s speech in 2019.
Yes, the Flint Water Crisis will end up in Detroit because everyone was stealin' so the new Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is going to send in her gurl, Kym Worthy, to see who is under investigation so they can be proactive in taking over the prosecution to save her crew.
It may a campaign financing promise, but, hey, what do I know?
FLINT (WJRT) (1/7/2019) - Another Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employee has pleaded no contest to charges related to the Flint water crisis.
Liane Shekter-Smith, the department's former chief of drinking water and municipal assistance, originally was charged in July 2016 with two felonies and one misdemeanor charge.
She pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a lawful meeting, which carries a possible penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. The other charges were dropped in exchange for her plea.
As part of the plea agreement with Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, Shekter-Smith must testify against other government officials charged in the Flint water cases. She likely will be a witness in the upcoming preliminary hearing for former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and former Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft.
If she provides misleading statements or fails to cooperate with prosecutors, Flood said a guilty plea to a five-year felony charge of misconduct in office will automatically be entered on her behalf. A review to determine whether she complied with the plea agreement is scheduled for April.
Shekter-Smith and other DEQ officials are accused of failing to do their jobs and provide safe drinking water for Flint residents after the switch to pump water from the Flint River in 2014.
Fellow DEQ officials Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch both pleaded no contest on Dec. 26 to misconduct in office and tampering with water monitoring reports -- both felonies -- along with misdemeanor violations of Michigan's drinking water law.
With Shekter-Smith's plea, seven of 15 people facing criminal charges related to the water crisis have pleaded guilty or no contest. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as one at sentencing.
FLINT, MI -- Three days after new Attorney General Dana Nessel said she wants to replace him, special Flint water prosecutor Todd Flood showed up for work, struck a plea deal with a former state drinking water official and refused to talk about his job security.
Flood answered several questions about his future and Nessel with “no comment” on Monday, Jan. 7, following continuation of a preliminary exam in Genesee District Court.
Nessel issued a news release Friday, Jan. 4, saying she had provided Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, a member of her transition team, “with the relevant materials related to the (Flint water) cases and has requested that her office take over the prosecution of the criminal cases on her behalf.”
Worthy issued her own statement Friday, saying she would evaluate the remaining criminal cases filed by Flood but not necessarily replace him.
That sounds like code for, "I am just going to take a look to see who is going to be charged so I can put together a defensive strategy for Dana and company."
Flood was appointed to the job by former Attorney General Bill Schuette. He’s charged 15 current and former city and state government officials with crimes related to the water crisis.
Seven of those cases resulted in plea agreements, three have been bound over to Genesee Circuit Court for jury trials and five are in the process of preliminary examinations in Genesee District Court.
As a candidate for office earlier this year, Nessel was among critics of the Flint water prosecutions, calling them “politically charged show trials” but didn’t say for certain if Flood would be replaced.
Despite the uncertainty, the special prosecutor is operating as though he plans to continue working on the cases.
Flood told District Judge Jennifer Manley on Monday that he doesn’t need to return to court to check on the status of the cooperation of former Department of Environmental Quality official Liane Shekter-Smith until at least February. That’s after she’s expected to testify in the preliminary exams for former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley and Howard Croft.
Last month, Flood told Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph Farah that he anticipated remaining on the job after the transition from Schuette to Nessel.
But, the Flint Water Crisis, which happened under the Emergency Manager Law, is still a matter of interest for Elijah Cummings, Chair of the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
No Flint water crisis if no Karegnondi Water Authority
KWA started “greatest water war in Michigan history”
GLWA widened war, taking over all of DWSD
KWA initiator Jeff Wright, a Democrat, tied to scandal-plagued Synagro, alleged money-laundering, shady campaign financing
Wright prioritized selling untreated water to DTE, other businesses over the people’s need for treated water
Karegnondi Water Group members get Bond Buyers’ “Midwest Deal of the Year” award in 2014. Without them, the poisoning of Flint would not have happened.
DETROIT – The mass lead poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan, a cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism, was contrived for the profit of the Wall Street bond market, corporations and politicians by both Republicans and Democrats with their own agendas.
The two parties are battling the matter out in electoral debates, with Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder justifiably though hypocritically castigated by Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton for his role in this unspeakable catastrophe.
“The governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care,” Clinton said during the NBC News debate in Charleston, S.C. “If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would’ve been action.” Clinton’s Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders simply asked Snyder to resign.
In the most cynically exploitative campaign move so far, Clinton just published the video below. It calls for donations to a Flint non-profit, rather than pledging billions from the U.S. Treasury to save Flint, just as the U.S. Treasury bailed out General Motors, which left Flint, taking with it 72,000 jobs.
No politician has expressed any intention of locking Snyder and cronies up for life without parole, the only sentence appropriate under Michigan law, or of providing the billions of dollars necessary to rebuild not only Flint’s water infrastructure, but the city itself, devastated for decades by its abandonment by General Motors and other corporations.
Ten Flint residents have already died from Legionnaire’s disease linked to contamination of the city’s water. Tens of thousands more, especially children and babies, face irreversible life-time damage due to the neurological and behavioral effects of lead, according to the World Health Organization.
A petition to recall Snyder has finally
been approved by the notoriously recalcitrant State Elections Board and will no doubt receive mass support, as it should.
But make no mistake—getting rid of Snyder will not cut out the cancer of racism and profiteering that has devastated Flint, Detroit, and cities across the U.S. for years.
The most blatant example of the bi-partisan midwifery of the Flint water catastrophe is the creation of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), in what a Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) spokesman called “the greatest water war in Michigan’s history.”
He was quoted before the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), which has since robbed the people of Detroit, the largest Black majority city in the U.S., of the entire DWSD, the country’s third largest water and sewerage system, founded in 1836, which had been serving 40 percent of Michigan’s population.
The poisoning of the city of Flint, which is also a majority Black, would not have happened without the creation of the KWA at the instigation of Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright, a white Democrat who has been Drain Commissioner since 2001 and spent 23 years prior to that in the department under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone.
According to U.S. Census figures, Genesee County is 75.2 percent white, and 20.6 percent Black, with a 21 percent poverty level. Flint is 37.4 percent white, and 56.6 percent Black, with a 41.5 percent poverty level.
Jeff Wright, CEO of KWA, Genesee County Drain Commissioner
In 2013, the KWA began building a 63-mile pipeline to Lake Huron that runs parallel to DWSD’s pipeline for the region. While boasting it will lower water rates, the Authority admits the pipeline will only deliver raw water, unlike the DWSD, which delivers fully treated water. Communities which sign on to it will have to treat their own water, creating ways to do so at additional costs to customers and profits to contractors. Wright said in 2011 that he wanted to bring raw water in for the benefit of businesses in the area.
The pipeline was supposed to have been up for operation by 2015.
The KWA now includes the “Genesee County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer City, Sanilac County Drain Commissioner and the City of Flint,” according to its website. St. Clair County is reportedly also considering membership as Wright courts more regional customers.
Wright, who has a history of shady dealings with water contractors, began the push to create the KWA in 2006. Snyder’s appointee, Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz, later endorsed it as well. In 2013, Wright got the Democratic City Council of Flint to agree to disconnect the city from the DWSD, which had supplied high-quality water to Flint residents since 1967, and connect with the KWA instead.
Due to KWA construction delays, however, Snyder and Kurtz ordered the ultimately disastrous long-term use of the polluted Flint River in the interim, falsely claiming that Detroit had refused to negotiate better rates for its Genesee County customers. While the Flint Water Treatment Plant, using the Flint River, has always been a back-up water supply to DWSD, which gets its water from Lake Huron, the plant was never outfitted to operate with river water for more than 20 days, on an emergency basis.
DTE’s Greenwood Energy Center in Avoca, MI is on the proposed Karegnondi line.
VOD reader Peter Bernard wrote, “DTE has been involved in the formation of KWA since the beginning. DTE didn’t need treated water to run its turbines. Was it the demand of DTE for untreated water as soon as Flint withdrew from DWSD that caused Flint to pump untreated water into its supply system? I worked for Detroit Edison as a summer intern 60 years ago and they always thought pure water was an extra expense since super-heated stem automatically purified the water driving the steam turbines.”
In 2011, Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal reported that DTE told the KWA board it was interested in purchasing up to three million gallons of untreated water per day from the Authority for its Greenwood Energy Plant.
“Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright called the news ‘very encouraging’ during a meeting of the KWA Board of Directors today, and said others could follow ‘as more businesses are made aware of (what we are doing and) the lower cost of untreated water,'” Fonger wrote, adding that Wright said KWA would work with DTE.
Map shows KWA pipeline in red, DWSD pipelines in blue.
In 2014, the Bond Buyer magazine gave KWA the Midwest Bond Buyer of the Year award during an elaborate ceremony in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, for its second sale of $220 million in bonds to finance the pipeline, an intake facility, and two pumping stations.
It earlier sold $35 billion in bonds despite Detroit’s bankruptcy filing.
“Long before Detroit filed its Chapter 9 bankruptcy case in the summer of 2013, Flint and Genesee County, Michigan saw the need to break away from their dependence on the Detroit water system,” the narrator of a video shown at the ceremony said in a disingenuous, factually inaccurate introduction.
“In 2010 they formed the Karegnondi Water Authority, the two governments’ long-term strategy to deliver a more reliable water supply at more reasonable rates. After years of planning and crafting a bond structure with dual backstops to protect investors, the Authority hit the market in early April with its inaugural issue for $220 million in bonds. . . .The governments expect to cover the debt repayments with system revenues, and both put their limited tax GBO payments behind the bonds.”
The narrator said that Genesee County also pledged to cover Flint’s portions of the bonds if it is not able to do so under state emergency management.
Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick receive Bond Buyer award in 2004 for disastrous $1.5 billion COPS deal.
“Entering a market where local governments across Michigan faced heightened penalties, the authorities sold the bonds to more than 30 investors and achieved borrowing costs below projections,” the narrator said. “The deal paves the way for the County to trade in annual rate increases of about 11.5 percent for ones closer to five.”
The presentation recalled a similar Bond Buyer award given to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-CFO Sean Werdlow in 2004, for the disastrous sale of $1.5 billion in “Certificates of Participation,” or “Pension Obligation Bonds,” an amount that ballooned to $2.8 billion with default penalties and interest swaps. Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr cited the deal as one reason for his improperly authorized 2013 Detroit Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, but never followed through on a lawsuit he filed calling it “void ab initio, illegal and unenforceable.”
Below is the video presented at the Bond Buyer 2014 awards ceremony, on the Karegnondi Water Authority and the bonds involved.
In 2013, Tucker, Young, Jackson and Tull (TYJT), a Detroit-based engineering and consulting company, was contracted by the Michigan Department of Treasury to provide a study of the proposed KWA, contrasting it with the advantages of Flint remaining with the DWSD. The study strongly contradicted claims the Bond Buyer made at the 2014 awards ceremony, and other made in a study contracted by the community of Swartz Creek. (See full TYJT study at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/FLINT-KWA-TYJT-water_report.pdf,)
DWSD spokesman Bill Johnson
“The Flint City Council’s approval of the Genesee County Drain Commission-backed idea to link Flint and a proposed multi-county connector effectively launched the greatest water war in Michigan’s history, “ Bill Johnson, communications head for the DWSD, said in a press release. “The action ignores a credible state-sponsored study that came out against the ill-advised Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) project. And the vote makes no connection to Flint’s fiscal reality. All things considered, the City of Flint is best served by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD).” (See full release at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/water_war_undermines_flint-dwsd_relations-2013-14.pdf.)
The study concluded that the cheapest and safest option out of eight through 2042 for Flint’s water supply was to provide it directly through an adaptation of DWSD’s Imlay City pumping station, which is closer to Flint. DWSD has always provided water for the area through its Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant at Ft. Gratiot, Michigan, which sends it to the Imlay City station to go to Flint. Flint then supplies it to other regional customers. (See graph below.)
TYJT noted that the KWA proposal did not account for cost overruns on construction contracts, an almost inevitable occurrence, or provide a back-up water supply as does the DWSD for all its customers in the event of failure of the primary supply.
Why did Wright ignore this study? His connections with shady contractors during his tenure as Genesee County Drain Commissioner beginning in 2001, and earlier in his 23 years serving under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone, are well-known.
Southwest community organizer Denise Hearn leads protest against Synagro’s Detroit boondoogle outside the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant July 31, 2008.
Wright himself formerly owned a water consulting business called Tara/Aqua Management. During his term as Commissioner, he has signed multiple contracts with Synagro Technologies, Inc. for sewage sludge removal, dewatering, and land application at the county’s Linden and Ragnone treatment plants, from 2002 through 2009, according to a 2010 Flint Journal expose by reporter Ron Fonger.
At least two of the Genesee Drain Commission Synagro contracts, in 2003 and 2005, were signed by James Rosendall, former Synagro vice-president of development who went to prison for 11 months, in connection with the Synagro/Carlyle bribery scandal that brought down former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, DWSD head Victor Mercado, and former City Council President Monica Conyers, among other Black city officials.
Synagro VP James Rosendall
Rosendall was the only white who was jailed, while Black officials who refused to act as FBI informants received terms as long as five years.
Judge Avern Cohn barred the defense from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group were not charged in the RICO indictment.
Whatever you do, do not tell anyone the reason why the defense was barred from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group was not charged in the RICO indictment was because there was an ongoing investigation into other matters of interest. Sssshhhh.......
Wright was an FBI informant against Conyers’ aide Sam Riddle during the probe. Many officials involved in the probe acted as informants rather than being charged as well.
Synagro was purchased by the insidious Carlyle Group in 2007, one of the largest private equity and alternative investment firms in the world which has extensive ties to the global defense industry.
The Carlyle Group’s board has included politicians from around the world, including former U.S. Presidents George H. W Bush and George W. Bush, and their former cabinet members U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, also former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Arthur Levitt, who served under Pres. Bill Clinton.
It is connected to the Bin Laden family and to former Phillippines dictator Fidel Ramos, among numerous others. Synagro went bankrupt in 2013 and was sold.
The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.
The Alabama-based American Cast Iron Pipe Company, which operates one of the largest ductile iron pipe casting plants in the world, has a contract with a starting cost of $84.1 million, while the Flint-based E & L Construction’s contract for the Imlay City pump station has a starting cost of $11.78 million. All this work duplicates DWSD pipelines and intake and pumping stations already servicing the area.
Pipe for Karegnondi Water Authority is hoisted into Lake Huron.
Recently, Channel 2 reporter Charlie LeDuff interviewed Jeff Wright in a story focusing on the profits made by contractors on the Flint water switch. They included Kurtz campaign contributors AECOM, with $18 billion in revenues in 2015, and the engineering firm hired to ensure that the switch to Flint River water would be safe, LAN (Lockwood, Andrews and Norman).
LeDuff reports that firm’s original contract began at $140,000 and ballooned later to $4 million, despite the fact that it did NOTHING to ensure the safety of the city’s water.
(VOD takes issue with LeDuff’s initial contention that Flint ratepayers decided to opt for the KWA because they were paying “outrageous” rates to Detroit. That is a claim that has been made by DWSD’s wholesale customers in six counties for decades, never with an addendum that the communities involved add their own surcharges to the wholesale rates. LeDuff also appears to conclude at the end that water flowing through Flint’s pipes now from DWSD is safe, which it will not be until complete replacement of the corroded infrastructure. )
The Black Lives Matter movement is currently being infiltrated by the real voices of all people.
Maureen Taylor has been calling out stealin' for as long as there have been victims of stealin' - "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).
This is about to get real because what has been taught in the schools and Hollywood about civil rights history and this thing called race is nothing but a noble lie.
The protest goes to the site of the 1967 rebellion, where one can only hope that young, out of town, protesters, will finally have an awakening to learn, what they have learned, is all a farce.
I know that we could ask Jeannie Rhee, but something tells me Mueller already has.
But, instead, I decided to find out who this Padriac Mullin was, considering the fact that his name was all on Jenna's Mandell Display Designs property address filed with LARA, now removed, as the property taxpayer of Wayne County, where, I just so happen to have found not one, but two, parcel numbers.
Is Padraic the brother of Turkia Mullin, who was kicking it hard with Bob Ficano while she was running the EB-5 program I could get absolutely no information about?
Hillary really wanted control of the airports, you know.
The only thing I know is Maureen Taylor is an original source and the world should listen to her, as the Black Lives Matter Movement is about to be uncloaked, for the truth to finally be revealed.
Maureen has been bleachbitted from the annals of cyber annals of history, but I preserved her legacy.
Maureen Taylor has spent her life advocating and fighting for the rights of the poor. Her passion put her in the national spotlight when she took on WDIV-TV reporter Hank Winchester during an MSNBC interview about the Detroit water shutoff crisis. Many saw her actions as heroic.
“It was true Maureen,” said local activist and community organizer Mike Shane of Moratorium Now! a grass-roots organization working to prevent mortgage foreclosures and utility shutoffs. “(The news segment and Taylor’s comments) gave the issue more prominence, which it needed.”
Shane said the interview illustrated Taylor’s determination and willingness to “go to the mat for poor and working people. She’s a good advocate for people.”
As state chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Taylor works nonstop from her office on the fourth floor of downtown Detroit’s Central United Methodist Church to help struggling individuals and families negotiate with Metro Detroit agencies. Many of those she helps are people who are working mainly in low-paying jobs that don’t cover most of their basic bills.
The state chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and a 2015 Michiganian of the Year, Maureen Taylor talks about what inspired her to become a "change agent."
For 30 years, Taylor has been a voice for the voiceless. She began her career on the front lines of protest marches and rallies to protect welfare benefits for residents during Gov. John Engler’s administration. Most recently she led efforts to prevent the state from tossing 41,000 people off the state’s welfare rolls, and last year she conducted protests over the water shutoffs in Detroit.
Taylor, who attributes many of the city’s problems to a sluggish economy that is starting to rebound, said she always wanted to be a “change agent.”
“I need to be able to make a change,” said Taylor. “I have to do something.”
Her passion for the poor began at a young age. Reared in an economically comfortable home in Detroit, a 12-year-old Taylor was struck by the abject poverty she saw during a cross-country trip with her family to Disneyland in California. Young children, most of whom were under the age of 10, were selling turquoise on the side of the road or picking vegetables.
“This question about social justice meant something to me. I thought ‘there’s something wrong,’ ” Taylor said. “I knew it and I saw it.”
A trained social worker with a master’s degree in social work, Taylor also studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
“At the Union Theological Seminary, the coursework was around the fundamental components of why poverty exists. It stressed the relationship between welfare assistance and employment as a bridge between the two contradictory yet dependent polls,” she said. “I learned the history of poverty, the theory of ‘surplus value’ as a component of the existing system, and what role it played in the structure of the American economy. I am a poverty scholar.”
Taylor has been praised for working with corporations, such as DTE, to implement programs to assist the area’s poor. As a result, DTE now provides a representative at Taylor’s office to help individuals and families come up with more affordable utility payments to avoid shutoffs.
Rodney Cole, DTE’s manager of regional relations for Wayne County, said Taylor has been instrumental in helping the utility company assist customers in need.
“She has the history and context with this city,” Cole said. “I have appreciated her ability and willingness to partner (with DTE ).”
Taylor says she doesn’t let those who show up at the Michigan Welfare Rights office leave without some solution to their problems.
“I try to find ways (to help),” Taylor said. “Clients don’t leave here or my desk until there is a plan to alleviate whatever is wrong.”
Oralandar Brand-Williams
Maureen Taylor
Occupation: State chair, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Marygrove College; master’s degree, Wayne State University
Family: One son
Why honored: She is the first recipient of the Angelo B. Henderson Community Commitment Award for being a frontline advocate for economically challenged individuals and families.
I still say BLM was co-opted from Bureau of Land Management.
So, what I did was to look up the Beaumont Healthy Heart Check™.
Unfortunately, I did not seem to find any registered trademark for Beaumont Healthy Heart Check™.
A decision by Fox 2 to abruptly suspend reporter M.L. Elrick's successful weekly podcast, "Soul of Detroit," is shrouded in mystery.
Elrick, who had been broadcasting since February on Drew Lane's Red Shovel Network podcast group, with his station's permission, abruptly announced last Friday on Facebook:
"It is with great regret that I write my podcast, ML's Soul of Detroit, is 'on pause' until further notice."
Elrick had been given green light to be part of Lane's podcast network by Fox 2 general manager Mike Renda, who retired in June. The first podcast was in February and was seen by the station as a way to help promote Elrick and itself.
Elrick, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who has worked for Fox 2 since 2012, referred Deadline Detroit to Fox 2 for comment on Tuesday. Greg Easterly, the affiliate's new general manager, did not immediately return a call requesting a comment.
Some of Elrick's supporters responded to his Facebook post with dismay, and one went as far as as to speculate: "Conspiracy theory: the new boss is in cahoots with DTE. You exposed them and they're shutting you down. Seriously, I want to speak to whoever's in command."
The comment apparently refers to an Aug. 1 podcast titled "Fight the Power," in which Elrick talked about DTE's steep rate hikes and compared its record with other ulitities when it comes to restoring power. The utility advertises on Fox 2.
Peter Ternes, a DTE spokeman, said the energy company played no role in the decision to suspend the podcast. "We have not had any conversations with any media outlets regarding M.L. Elrick or his podcast," he said in a statement.
Elrick also did provocative podcasts on former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in June and August, and debated currrent mayoral chief of staff Alexis Wiley in April about a Free Press story on her boss, Mike Duggan.
The Red Shovel Network hosts podcasts of other local personalities. including former Fox 2 reporter Charlie LeDuff, a Deadline Detroit columnist.
Lane, a former sportscaster and WRIF-FM co-host with Mike Clark, issued a statement to Deadline Detroit on Tuesday:
"I spent a long time trying To get ML to do this and I knew it would be great. Then it took months to get through red tape to approve it with Fox 2. It was worth the wait. The 'Soul of Detroit' took off and 2 weeks ago 50,000 people downloaded it. 99.9 percent of all podcasts will NEVER do that! Marc Fellhauer and Sean Windsor have poured their hearts into this and the show also has picked up advertisers.
"My understanding is there’s a new sheriff at Fox 2 and ML has been asked to take a pause while Fox 2 decides whether this is Ok going forward. We all have to answer to someone and he has respectfully put on the brakes. After all the hard work, chemistry and hustle it took to get the 'Soul of Detroit' where it is, obviously this really hurts. I just hope we get it going again soon because this show has LEGS and gets better all the time. ML is an important voice in Detroit and hearing him in this format was fantastic.
I heard rumors DTE is illegally burning downblended uranium residuals for super cheap electricity in the Monroe plant, the illegally transporting to Detroit, paying off the union to look the other way, the morbidly upcharging the customers, and asking Michigan for rate increases, and being granted, but hey, what do I know?
David Koch, billionaire conservative activist and philanthropist, has died.
He was 79.
He and his brother, Charles, co-owned Koch Industries, a Nebraska-based energy and chemical company, since 1983. David stepped down from running the Koch organization last year due to declining health.
The Koch brothers helped to build a massive conservative network of donors for organizations that work to mobilize voters and sway elected officials in support of libertarian-leaning economic policies.
The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.
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