In DC: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is testifying on Flint’s water crisis in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today. You can hear what he’s saying in a stream here. So far it seems to be pinning-it-on-the-EPA defense.
In the air we breathe: Uroboros Glass has quietly committed to a plan proposed by the DEQ to help curb heavy metals emissions from the glass factory. Here’s the O: “Uroboros Glass, a North Portland manufacturer, signed an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Quality this week that requires pollution controls and a halt in its use of arsenic, chromium and cadmium. The company voluntarily stopped using chromium and cadmium in early February when concerns were first raised, and it said it hadn’t used arsenic for years… Notably, Uroboros agreed to halt using harmless trivalent chromium until the state determines whether it converts to carcinogenic hexavalent chromium when glassmakers put it in their hot furnaces.”
At SXSW: FLOTUS, bona fide esquire, and apparently level-headed human Michelle Obama says she won’t run for president. I’m still kinda disappointed?
Today, in reasons not to trust in the judicial system: Um, wow. A federal appeals court has ruled against Jaycee Dugard, who you’ll recall was abducted, confined to a shack for 18 years, and repeatedly sexually assaulted, and who had filed suit against the state for failing to arrest her abductor, Phillip Garrido, despite “repeated parole violations over a two-and-a-half-year period.”
Somewhat related: Our state’s Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision has voted to deny Richard Troy Gillmore future parole hearings. Gillmore committed at least nine rapes in the 1970s and ’80s.
(Now might be a good time to revisit Emily Nussbaum’s excellent piece about abduction survivors’ stories.)
CAN WE ALL AT LEAST AGREE THAT MERRICK GARLAND IS A WONDERFUL NAME THO: Oh cool, Mitch McConnell is still blaming Democrats for the GOP’s unwavering commitment to obstructionism in the face of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.
In lighter Supreme Court nominee news:
MERRICK GARLAND
*audience looks confused*
*Obama rearranges letters*
*audience gasps*
KENDRICK LAMAR–@tejucole
— Summer Brennan (@summerbrennan) March 16, 2016
One can dream, I suppose.
Today, in “We’re fucked!”: The Economist ranks a Donald Trump presidency among “top 10 global risks.” I don’t disagree.
At SeaWorld: The deservedly-beleaguered amusement park will stop breeding Orca whales posthaste.
Horrible: Secretary of State John Kerry today categorized ISIS’ persecution of the Yazidis and other ethnic minorities in Iraq as genocide. “The genocide finding does not legally obligate the U.S. to take any particular action, but it could put pressure on the Obama administration to take more aggressive military action against ISIS,” says CNN.
Related: This came out in the Sunday NY Times, but I think everyone who cares at all about national security and women’s rights should read it.
In Wisconsin: The state’s Department of Health Services is investigating an outbreak related to a bacterium that doesn’t normally cause disease in humans, and is improbably named Elizabeth.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I know because the Google doodle told me, and it’s maybe a fun day to not go downtown at all.
The plot thickens: A month before setting up her private email server, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requested a secure smartphone, the AP reports. The NSA said no.
In lighter Hillary Clinton news:
Good morning!