Jackson residents now have running water, but it’s still not safe to drink – National & International News – MON 12Sept2022

Jackson residents now have running water, but it’s still not safe to drink. DOJ subpoenas several Trump aides in Jan. 6 probe. China: Xinjiang COVID lockdowns lead to food, medicine shortages.

NATIONAL NEWS

Jackson residents now have running water, but it’s still not safe to drink

After heavy rain and flooding overwhelmed Jackson’s O.B. Curtis water treatment plant, Jackson’s 150,000 or so residents were unable to shower or even flush their toilets for several days. But even before that, the city had been under a boil water notice for a month. With considerable help from FEMA and the EPA, Jackson has managed to restore adequate water pressure to its residents. Still, there is no end in sight for the boil water notice, and a long term solution to the city’s water woes is still nowhere to be seen.

Jackson’s mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has spoken to NPR and most recently CBS about the prospects for a resolution. It’s clear from both interviews that considerable tensions remain between Jackson’s city government and the state government. There are also major disagreements about how to proceed with necessary upgrades to Jackson’s infrastructure and who should pay for it.

Is privatization “on the table”?

The NPR interviewer mentioned Gov. Tate Reeves’ comment that privatization of Jackson’s water utility was “on the table”. Lumumba responded that privatization would take the people of Jackson “from one state of misery to the next”. Privatization of public utilities often results in unsustainable rate increases. More than a quarter of Jackson’s residents live below the poverty line and would struggle to pay higher rates for their water. Lumumba said that a maintenance agreement with a private entity that allowed rates to remain reasonable would be preferable.

EPA opens federal probe

The CBS interviewer addressed a new probe by the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General into the failures of Jackson’s water infrastructure. Lumumba said he had encouraged all city employees to cooperate fully with investigators, and denied knowledge of any criminality by city employees. In fact, Lumumba said he welcomed the probe, hoping that it would get to the root causes of the crisis.

A similar EPA OIG investigation of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, led to 9 indictments of city and state officials, including Michigan’s former governor Rick Snyder. The indictments were announced last year and the trials are still ongoing.

Lumumba touts federal help

During the CBS interview, Lumumba says he’s been in close communication with President Biden, EPA head Michael Regan and federal infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu. The city of Jackson has recently received some $42 million in federal funds, but doesn’t yet have all that money in hand. Lumumba says that while the lion’s share of that money will go towards Jackson’s infrastructure, “it is insufficient to meet the great need of 30 years of deferred maintenance and accumulated challenges”. Lumumba said that more federal funds may be on the way to Jackson in October but didn’t give further details. In previous interviews, Lumumba has said it may cost as much as $2 billion to fully overhaul Jackson’s water infrastructure.

The CBS interviewer asked Lumumba about his previous comments claiming that state lawmakers had been racist in their treatment of Jackson. Lumumba didn’t walk back those comments but said that Jacksonians won’t be served by focusing on political infighting.

DOJ subpoenas several Trump aides in Jan. 6 probe

News broke over the weekend that the Justice Department has subpoenaed several current and former Trump aides in a grand jury probe related to Jan. 6. Sources familiar with the investigation told several news outlets that DOJ wants to question these aides about Trump’s fundraising following his November 2020 election loss. This probe is separate from another federal grand jury probe of Trump’s efforts to pressure 6 states to appoint fake electors.

This probe centers on Trump’s Save America PAC. Following the November 2020 election, Trump’s campaign raised millions in small dollar donations from Trump’s supporters, supposedly to fund the campaign’s judicial challenges to the election results. Rather than supporting court challenges, most of that money went to the Save America PAC.

Where did the money go?

The PAC’s leadership is a who’s who of current and former Trump officials, all of whom draw hefty salaries. These include subpoena recipients William B. Harrison, William S. Russell, Nicholas Luna, and Sean Dollman.

Save America also set up several sub-organizations, which have funded Trump’s defense in his myriad court battles, none of which have anything to do with his initial litigation of the election results. They’ve also helped pay for the defense of several Trump confidents who are fighting subpoenas in other Jan. 6-related cases. Through one of these sub-organizations, the PAC also funded the efforts for a ballot recount in Arizona.

PACs in general have a reputation for spreading money around in ways that rarely receive official scrutiny, although they probably should. In many cases, they simply act as warehouses to ensure that a campaign’s political operatives remain on a candidate’s payroll.

Considering the wide latitude given to other PACs, it’s not clear yet what Save America did that was egregious enough to merit a federal grand jury probe. An answer may materialize in the days and weeks to come. It’s possible DOJ believes the PAC’s financial dealings will shed light one one of their other criminal probes of Trump and his associates.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

China: Xinjiang COVID lockdowns lead to food, medicine shortages

Parts of China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang, home to much of the country’s oppressed Muslim Uighur and Kazakh populations, has been under COVID lockdown since at least early August. Lately, desperate Uighurs and Kazakhs have take to social media to plead for food and medicine. China’s internet censors have instructed users to flood social media sites with innocuous posts about Xinjiang to try to drown out the cries for help.

Meanwhile, the 21 million inhabitants of the city of Chengdu in the southwest Sichuan province have endured weeks of heatwaves, power cuts and deadly earthquakes while also in strict lockdown. Chengdu is China’s largest city to go into strict lockdown since Shanghai, a city of 25 million, endured two months of lockdown earlier this year.

President Xi to meet with Putin

In his first trip abroad since the pandemic, China’s president Xi Jinping is traveling to Uzbekistan for a regional conference. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also attending and will be meeting with Xi. The last time the two leaders met face-to-face was at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Putin was one of only a few foreign leaders to attend the Olympics. This was shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Xi and Putin’s partnership has intensified since then. However, Xi may be having concerns about Putin’s war in Ukraine, which doesn’t seem to be going very well at the moment. At an upcoming Chinese Communist Party Conference in October, Xi hopes to secure an unprecedented third 5-year term as the party’s leader and China’s president. Xi is therefore eager to avoid embarrassment from either the social and economic devastation of China’s severe lockdowns or from Putin’s destabilizing war in Ukraine.

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