Commentary:  Beyond the water crisis, another Flint crisis looms
Jun09

Commentary: Beyond the water crisis, another Flint crisis looms

By Paul Rozycki In its own clumsy way the Flint water crisis seems to be slowly drifting to some sort of resolution. Most scientific reports are showing a significant reduction in the lead levels in our water.  As a result the state has ended its distribution of free water at its water points of distribution (PODs) in the city, over much protest and anger. Several private groups and churches have stepped forward to provide bottled...

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Review:  “JFK:  The Last Speech” juxtaposes power, the arts, and eloquence with a local angle
Jun08

Review: “JFK: The Last Speech” juxtaposes power, the arts, and eloquence with a local angle

By Ed Bradley The reflective new documentary JFK: The Last Speech recalls a time when not only could it be assumed that the American president knew how to spell the word “poetry,” but also that he could recite verse at an important event without an eyebrow being raised or a pundit shouting.  Still, John F. Kennedy’s last major public address, less than a month before his assassination, was no typical oration. Speaking at Amherst...

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Review:  Politics, misused power, poverty all play a role in Anna Clark’s riveting “The Poisoned City”
Jun03

Review: Politics, misused power, poverty all play a role in Anna Clark’s riveting “The Poisoned City”

By Robert R. Thomas A current Flint kerfuffle is the Hurley Medical Center controversy about whether we Flintstones were “lead-poisoned” or “lead-exposed.” Anna Clark’s riveting reply to that question and many more is The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy. The book will be officially out in July, but will be launched in Flint at Tenacity Brewing on Saturday, June 23. Key elements in Clark’s examination of...

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Activists’ letter aims grievances at Marc Edwards;  he calls it “science anarchy”
Jun02

Activists’ letter aims grievances at Marc Edwards; he calls it “science anarchy”

By Jan Worth-Nelson Note:  This piece was updated Saturday evening, June 2, to add several paragraphs from flintwaterstudy.com’s response to the flintcomplaints.com letter, received after the article was originally written. A Virginia Polytechnic Institute professor who emerged in 2015 as one of the heroes of the Flint Water Crisis, Marc Edwards, is now being bitterly called to account by a Who’s Who of activists in the...

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Citizens  to Hurley board:  “lead-exposed” word change “preposterous,” and devastating to trust
May31

Citizens to Hurley board: “lead-exposed” word change “preposterous,” and devastating to trust

By Jan Worth-Nelson Six Flint residents, all of whom described searing effects from the Flint water crisis, spoke up at the meeting of the Hurley Medical Center Board of Managers Wednesday night to say, “Words matter.”  They asserted that a recent statement by a group of Hurley doctors has dealt a major blow to the community’s already decimated trust and is based on “preposterous” claims. The Flint...

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