Lansing, Michigan
Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was charged Wednesday with willful neglect of duty after an investigation of ruinous decisions which left Flint with lead-contaminated water and a regional outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, the Associated Press reported.
The charges, revealed in an online court record, are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The charges are groundbreaking: no governor or former governor in Michigan’s 184-year history has been charged with crimes related their time in office. Snyder’s attorney Brian Lennon said there is no evidence to support criminal charges and a criminal case would be “outrageous,” according to AP.
Besides Snyder, who was in office from 2011 to 2018, charges are expected against other people, including former officials who served as his state health director and as a senior adviser. The alleged officer date is April 25, 2014, when a Snyder-appointed emergency manager who was running the city carried out a money saving decision to use the Flint River for water while a regional pipeline from Lake Huron was being constructed, AP reported.
However, the corrosive water was not treated properly and released led from old plumbing into home in one of the worst manmade environmental disaster in U.S. history. Depsite desperate pleas from residents holding jugs of discolored water, the Snyder administration took no significant action until a doctor reported elevated levels in children about 18 months later, according to AP.
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Prosecutors in Wisconsin have asked a judge to order an Illinois teen killed with two people and wounding a third in a violent protest regarding a police shooting to stay out of bars and away from white supremacist groups, the Associated Press reported.
The request comes a week after Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, was seen drinking at a bar in Mount Pleasant after he pleaded not guilty to homicide and other charges resulting from the August 25 shooting in Kenosha. The city saw several nights of chaotic protests after a white Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is black, in the back seven times, partially paralyzing him, according to AP.
Rittenhouse is free on a $2 million bond. After his January 5 arraignment, Rittenhouse, his mother and several other adults went to Pudgy’s Pub, where he was seen drinking beer, which Wisconsin laws allow since he was with his mother. The prosecutor’s motion states Ritetnhouse posed outside the bar with two men making a white supremacists symbol and several in the bar sung the anthem of the Proud Boys, who had members involved in the attack on the capitol, AP reported.
“The defendant’ continued association with members of a group which prides itself on violence, and the use of their symbols, raises the significant possibility of future harm. Further, the association may serve to intimidate potential witnesses,” the motion reads. A hearing on the prosecutor’s request has not yet been scheduled, according to AP.
Richmond, Virginia
It was one of the worst bursts of gang violence Richmond, Virginia, had ever seen. At least 11 people were killed in a 45-day period in 1992, all at the hands of gang members who eliminated anyone they thought would get in the way of their growing crack cocaine business, the Associated Press reported.
Corey Johnson, who was sentenced to death in connection with seven of the slayings, was right in the thick of it as one of the leaders of the Newtowne gang. He and two other members was sentenced to death under a federal law which targets large-scale drug traffickers, according to AP.
Johnson, now 52, was scheduled to die Thursday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., had halted the execution and Friday’s scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs because both men tested positive last month for COVID-19, but a federal appeals court late Wednesday lifted the injunction. Addition appeals I the case are likely, though government lawyers have been successful in getting a green light from the U.S. Supreme Court to proceed even after lower courts put federal execution on hold, AP reported.
Lawyers for both inmates argue lung damage from COVID-19 makes it more likely they will suffer excruciating pain from a lethal injection or pentobarbital. Johnson’s lawyers also argue he is disable intellectually and therefore ineligible to be put to death under both federal law and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, according to AP. Boring, Oregon
A line formed out the door during the lunch rush at the Carver Hangar, a family0owned restaurant and sports bar, and waitresses zipped in and out of the kitchen trying to keep up with orders as customers backed up in the lobby, the Associated Press reported.
Indoor dining has been banned in much of Oregon for nearly two months, but the eatery was doing a booming business, and an illegal one. The restaurant’s owners, Bryan and Liz Mitchell, fully reopened January 1 in defiance of Democratic Gov. kate Brown’s COVID-19 indoor dining ban in the county despite the risk of heavy fines and surging positive cases, according to AP.
“We’re not going to back down because our employees still need to eat, they still need that income,” Bryan Mitchell said as customers ate at tables 6 feet apart. “The statement we are making is, ‘Every life is essential. You have the right to survive. Nobody should tell you what you can and cannot do to provide for your family.’”
Health authorities in Oregon and other states with bans said they are necessary because people can’t wear masks when they eat, are in close proximity in smaller and often poorly ventilated spaces and are prone to talk louder in a crowded dining room — all known contributors to viral spread, AP reported.