Congress held its first hearing Wednesday on lead poisoning in Flint’s water supply. The crisis began after an unelected emergency manager appointed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder switched the source of Flint’s drinking water to the corrosive Flint River. Flint’s former emergency manager, Darnell Earley, refused to testify at the hearing, despite a subpoena. On Tuesday, he announced he was resigning from his current position as emergency manager of the Detroit Public Schools. Republican Congressmember Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chair of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which convened the hearing, said of Earley that he would direct U.S. marshals to "hunt him down" and serve him with a subpoena. We play highlights from the hearing, including Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, who was one of the first to sound the alarm about lead contamination in the water. "Despite the evidence and the fact that my son had lead poisoning, the city and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality still continued to tell everyone that the water was safe," Walters said. Congressmember Sheila Jackson Lee raised the specter of a 1970s cult leader who led the mass murder-suicide of his more than 900 followers, nearly 300 of them children. "There is a Jim Jones in Michigan, who gave a poisoned concoction to children and their families," Lee said.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/IrWZPq7XacY
No comments:
Post a Comment