Michigan state officials insisted that the water supply in Flint was safe even though they knew an unusual number of children had suffered lead poisoning, according to a scientist who helped blow the whistle on Flint's water crisis.
About 20 million working people in this country need good jobs and an economy to rebuild the middle class. A threat to that growth and stability for many Americans is what is before Congress right now: fast track negotiating authority for trade agreements.
When Alison Norris couldn't find work in Detroit, she searched past the city limits, ending up with a part-time restaurant job that's 20 miles away but takes at least two hours to get to via separate city and suburban bus systems.
On May 16, 2010, a Detroit SWAT team raided the home of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. As officers entered the home, Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley's gun went off, killing Aiyana, who was asleep on the couch with her grandmother.
Rev. Edward Pinkney, the 66-year-old community activist who has battled for decades on behalf of the mostly Black population of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was this week convicted on five counts of forging the dates of some signatures on a petition to recall the town’s mayor. The Berrien County jury was all-white. So was the judge and the prosecutor.
In the new Detroit, a small number of wealthy residents are protected by private security and constant surveillance while the city’s black majority struggles to maintain access to water.
The people of Detroit are vowing resistance after a federal bankruptcy judge on Monday ruled that the city can continue shutting off water to its poorest residents if their bills cannot be paid.