News & Commentary

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—ACLU of Michigan investigative reporter Curt Guyette has been named Michigan Journalist of the Year by the Michigan Press Association for his groundbreaking coverage of toxic contamination of the Flint water supply, a public-health disaster that exposed the city of 100,000 people to lead poisoning for almost two years even as government officials insisted the water was safe.

The Flint water saga has taken some wild twists in the past few weeks.

Throughout 2015, black students across the country were forced to face down racial hostility and violence on college campuses that seemed drawn straight from the Jim Crow era.  In addition, a leading presidential candidate spent much of the year promising to build a wall to keep out Mexican immigrants.

The State of Michigan attempted to cover up the fact that its own data revealed a significant spike in lead found in Flint children after the state forced the city to draw water from the Flint River, a researcher who studied the Flint crisis has alleged.

In the summer of 2014, as the City of Detroit was shutting off water to thousands of homes a week, a small group of activists resorted to civil disobedience in an attempt to draw attention to the crisis.

In a move characterized by critics as both overtly political and terribly damaging, the Board of Regents for Eastern Michigan University on Tuesday decided to keep the controversial Education Achievement Authority breathing when the board ducked a vote that could have pulled the plug on this abject failure.

Last month, Michigan received the dubious distinction of ranking dead last in the nation for state ethics and transparency laws. The State received an “F” based on the weaknesses of these laws and the systems in place to enforce them, which were collectively deemed “An honor system with no honor.”

Last December, regents for Eastern Michigan University put the Education Achievement Authority on notice, saying that a number of severe problems had to be addressed in the coming year for the controversial school district to remain in existence.

The City of Flint took center stage Wednesday during a meeting of water experts considering proposed changes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Lead and Copper Rule.”