Watch the water

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/overnights/430337-13-michigan-water-systems-fail-excessive-lead-test

More than a dozen water systems in Michigan were found to have excessive lead compared to federal standards in the second half of 2018, according to a new report.

The 13 systems that failed the federal test were throughout the state, MLive reported Friday, citing data it had obtained from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

One water system served fewer than 100 people, while another served a city of about 22,000. Seven systems were found to have lead levels twice as high as is legal in Michigan, according to the report.

The maximum legal level of lead in the U.S. is 15 parts per billion (ppb). In Michigan, 27 systems were found to have lead levels of at least 13 ppb, MLive reported.

>>5206368

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/cyndi-roper/will-michigan-lead-getting-lead-out-drinking-water

Flint is in the process of replacing an estimated 18,000 lead pipes connecting homes to water mains. Michigan officials estimate there are approximately 500,000 households with these conduits, which constantly threaten to deliver lead-tainted water to homes. The vast majority of water utilities have either ignored these pipes, or they’ve only replaced the portion by the curb—known as a partial lead service line replacement—rather than all the way from the water main to the home.

Older cities all over probably have this problem. When you stop using corrosion inhibitors it leaches.

https://apnews.com/064cd78156874d8896271ab67075f47c

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian emergency authorities say several floors of a university building in Russia’s second-largest city have collapsed. There was no immediate information on casualties.

The cause of the collapse Saturday afternoon at the building of the Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics was not clear.

News reports said there may have been students in the building for elective weekend instruction.

The school, known as ITMO University, is one of Russia’s national research universities.

https://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/greed-corrupted-you-va-official-who-exploited-veterans-in-fraud-scam-gets-11-years-1.568932

A disabled infantryman who served three tours in Iraq and was exploited by a Department of Veterans Affairs official looked across a courtroom and called on the man to think hard in prison about what he had done.

"You took an oath to serve veterans. You took an oath to serve your country. But money and greed corrupted you," Chris Burke, 51, of Herndon, Virginia, a former U.S. infantry member who served three tours, told James King in federal court Friday at King's sentencing hearing.

King led a scheme to steer 88 disabled veterans and more than $2 million in taxpayer-funded benefits to sham job-retraining schools in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.

He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in Washington after former U.S. service members told a judge how King, 61, of Baltimore, wasted years of their lives and left them with nothing but debt and stolen dreams of post-service careers.

Many times, Burke said, he and other veterans waited in their cars or stood in front of a locked storefront office of Atius Technology Institute of Beltsville, Maryland