The Flint Water Crisis

A judge overseeing misdemeanor charges against a former Michigan governor in the Flint water scandal said Tuesday that he’s struggling with how to handle an aggressive effort to have the case dismissed.

Genesee County health and education officials want young children from Flint evaluated for developmental issues.

Testing has shown Flint’s drinking water has long since recovered from its lead crisis in 2014 and 2015.

Attorneys for former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder are striking back, telling prosecutors Tuesday that the Flint water case should be dismissed because he was charged in the wrong county.

Snyder was charged last week with two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty. He was indicted by a Genesee County judge who sat as a grand juror and considered evidence presented by prosecutors.

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in 2014-15, The Associated Press has learned.

A federal law blamed in part of slowing the response to the Flint water crisis is getting a major revision.

Andrew Wheeler is the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator.

During a press conference Tuesday, Wheeler says the updated Lead and Copper Rule, or LCR, will lower the lead contamination level requiring a response and require testing of drinking water in schools and child care facilities.

The Flint city council has signed off on joining a $641 million settlement of water crisis lawsuits.

The council voted just after midnight after a marathon session Monday night to tap $20 million in insurance funds to pay the city’s share of the settlement.

During a court hearing on Monday, a federal judge said she expects to decide by next month whether to approve a massive legal settlement of claims tied to the Flint water crisis.

U.S. District Judge Judith Levy says the $641 million master agreement is among the most complex settlement she has ever seen. The complexity of the deal could be surmised by the more than 140 lawyers on the Zoom hearing.

Michigan legislators on Wednesday finalized a plan to borrow $600 million to finance the state’s proposed settlement with the residents of Flint, whose water was contaminated with elevated levels of the neurotoxin lead.