Flint

Water activists say the candidates for governor in Michigan are not proposing bold enough plans to fix the state’s water problems.

Activists gathered in Flint to mark “Imagine a Day without Water." The city has become a poster child for Michigan’s issues with everything from tainted tap water to unaffordable bills.

Monica Lewis-Patrick is the president of “We the People of Detroit.” She lays the blame for Michigan’s water issues on outgoing Governor Rick Snyder.

At least 18 people, including Democratic congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib, were taken into police custody at a pro-union rally in downtown Detroit Tuesday.

Updated at 3:00 p.m.

The driver of a burgundy pickup truck drove into a crowd of protesters in Flint Tuesday morning. Police believe it was an accident and the male driver has not been arrested.

Eight protesters were taken to the hospital with what are believed to be non-life threatening injuries.  

A defense lawyer wants a mental health evaluation for the man accused of carrying out a terrorist attack at Flint’s airport last year.

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan that will allow the city of Flint to spend millions of dollars to replace thousands of water meters. 

The money is coming from $120 million set aside by the federal and state governments to help Flint recover from its water crisis.

Flint Chief Financial Officer Hughey Newsome says the new meters should help the city improve its water bill collections and reduce water theft. Newsome admits right now they’re not sure where all the city water is going.

Flint mayor Karen Weaver is optimistic state officials are listening now to the city’s concerns about a method of checking for lead pipes.

Mayor Weaver sat down with state and local officials to discuss the current state of Flint’s recovery from its water crisis.

Officials say hacking apparently is to blame for the recent sounding of emergency warning sirens in Genesee County.

The county's 911 executive board director Mark Emmendorfer says the tones of the sirens Tuesday in the Flint area suggest hacking. Officials previously blamed an apparent malfunction. 

It's the third time in about a month that the sirens used during for tornado warnings and civil defense emergencies went off when there was no emergency.

The city of Flint is being sued after one of its police officers handcuffed a disabled seven-year-old boy in 2015. 

The boy was handcuffed by the officer, who was working as a school resource officer, after instructors at an after-school program called for help in dealing with what the family's attorneys call “behavioral challenges.”  

This week, Flint Community Schools will take an important step toward finding its next permanent superintendent.

An interim superintendent has overseen the district since Bilal Tawwab was let go this past spring. Former emergency manager Gregory Weatherspoon was hired in March to serve as interim superintendent.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson Thursday handed a large novelty check to Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. 

The amount written on the check was anything but a novelty: $30 million.   

Flint is one of five cities receiving money through the HUD Choice Neighborhoods grant program.  The money is earmarked to replace decaying public housing in the city.

Flint has been awarded $30 million in federal money to tear down the aging, crumbling public housing complex known as Atherton East, and build a new, mixed-income development, in a different location.

Congressman Dan Kildee says Atherton East was part of a bad approach to public housing during the 1960s.

Excessive heat is settling in over much of Michigan.  Temperatures are expected to soar well into the 90s this weekend. 

Flint school officials are putting their search for a new superintendent on the fast track.

The Flint Board of Education has done little publicly since dumping Superintendent Bilal Tawwab back in March.    The district hired a former emergency manager to serve as interim superintendent.

There’s a new tool that Michigan cities can use to better understand their health care needs.

The NYU School of Medicine has developed what they call the City Health Dashboard, which looks at 36 key measures and drivers of health.   

Marc Gourevitch is the Dashboard’s principal architect. He says health problems like opioid abuse and obesity are tracked on the dashboard.

“Not only looking at health itself,” says Gourevitch, “but some of the things that cause health, like housing and transportation and air quality. So we try to bring all that together.”

A controversial company will provide some Flint residents with bottled water for the next several months.

Nestle has been criticized for its deal to pump more water from rural Michigan for its bottled water business.

The company has agreed to distribute thousands of those bottles for free to Flint residents.

The site of a formerly run-down apartment complex on Flint’s north side may soon become a mixed-residential development.

This week, the Genesee County Land Bank announced it’s working with developers to create 78 units of affordable rental housing for low-income residents.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of Flint’s ill-fated switch to the Flint River as the city’s drinking water source.

It was four years ago that then-Flint Mayor Dayne Walling pushed the button switching the city’s drinking water source to the Flint River.

A federal judge won't force the state to immediately resume giving out bottled water to Flint residents affected by the city's lead-tainted tap water crisis.

The decision Friday concerns the case of Flint resident Allen Bryant Jr. A recently filed lawsuit says that Bryant and other residents still have dangerous levels of lead in their tap water. It asks a judge to compel the state to continue funding bottled water distribution.

Flint’s mayor is talking about “legal options” after an unsuccessful meeting with Governor Snyder about restarting bottled water distribution.

I don't blame politicians for avoiding the "politician" label. Politician, after all, is a dirty word. They are all rotten, lying, cheating, crummy, crooked politicians, right? Well... maybe not all. In this representative form of government, we all profess to love so much, good politicians are critical to its success. Good politicians are advocates of the people. They listen, they understand, they form a consensus, and then they lead.