For Flint, Michigan, an end to the water crisis remains nowhere in sight.
“The damage has been done,” said Sergio Kapusta, a scientist and expert on corrosion. “That piping in each house is going to put out lead contamination for some time. The best course of action is that they be replaced.”
State officials said they had increased the level of phosphates in the water to coat the inside of the pipes, an initial step that could help alleviate the problem. Keith Creagh, the interim director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, said that lead levels in Flint had dropped significantly. [...]
“They keep telling us, ‘We don’t know when you can drink it again,’” said Gary Edwards, 59, a lifelong Flint resident who stopped at a firehouse downtown on Wednesday to pick up bottled water. “How much longer can we keep doing this, using bottled water for everything?”
Replacing lead pipes in the entirety of Flint will take, at minimum, years. The state is also wrestling with how to care for lead-poisoned children throughout their lives, possibly through an expansion of Medicaid specifically targeting those residents.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—War opposition still increasing:
Yet another poll is showing increased opposition to Bush's new war in Iraq. The USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll has opposition at 43 percent, up from 38 percent Jan 10-12. Actual support from the invasion is at 52 percent.
Of course, those numbers could move over to the "support" column if either the US or UK present evidence of Iraqi non-compliance. As of yet, all we're hearing is the same "trust us, we have evidence" bullshit, while all CIA leads to the weapons inspectors have come up empty.
There may also be movement in the polls following the president's SOTU address, though it will be interesting to watch how long any such "bounce" will last. And it will also be interesting how the markets react, not just the Wednesday after the speech, but two weeks out. Bush may claim to ignore polls, but it'll be increasingly difficult to ignore his Wall Street supporters. War jitters alone continue to pound the market today.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the Bundys get busted; Greg Dworkin surveys the Trump blame game short-finger pointing; Trump’s people share his ego; Joan McCarter sounds a cautionary note on Malheur, and shares the dark tales she’s read in Jane Mayer’s latest, Dark Money.
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