Michigan health director to face trial
FLINT, Mich. -- A judge on Monday ordered Michigan's health director to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in two deaths linked to Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area, the highest-ranking official to face criminal charges as a result of the city's tainted-water scandal.
Nick Lyon, director of the Health and Human Services Department, is accused of failing to issue a timely alert about the outbreak. District Judge David Goggins said deaths likely could have been prevented if the outbreak had been publicly known. He said keeping the public in the dark was "corrupt."
Goggins found probable cause for a trial in Genesee County court, a legal standard that isn't as high as beyond a reasonable doubt. Lyon also faces a charge of misconduct in office.
Some experts have blamed the Legionnaires' disease cases on Flint's water, which wasn't properly treated when it was drawn from the Flint River in 2014 and 2015. Legionella bacteria can trigger a severe form of pneumonia, especially in people with weakened immune systems.
At least 90 cases of Legionnaires' occurred in Genesee County, including 12 deaths.
Oklahoma pot measure lacks signatures
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Election officials said Monday that an effort to place recreational marijuana on Oklahoma's general election ballot in November has fallen more than 20,000 signatures short.
Secretary of State James Williamson announced that a count by his office determined supporters of the initiative gathered nearly 103,000 signatures for State Question 797. The group needed more than 123,000 signatures to qualify the proposed constitutional amendment for a public vote.
Supporters wanted to amend the constitution to allow adults over the age of 21 to legally use marijuana.
Williamson's office sent a report on its findings to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which will review the information and make a final decision on the group's effort.
Williamson announced last week a separate state question to constitutionally protect medical marijuana also fell short of the signature requirement.
Immigrant spouses seek waiver to stay
BOSTON -- A federal judge in Boston began hearing arguments on Monday in a case centered on whether migrants married to U.S. citizens but facing deportation should be allowed to remain in the country while they seek to become legal residents.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the class-action lawsuit, said a special exemption created under former President Barack Obama's administration allows certain noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens to remain in the country while they apply for legal status through marriage.
It argued that the 2016 Department of Homeland Security waiver, which was meant to prevent breaking up families and causing unnecessary hardship, isn't being honored by Republican President Donald Trump's administration.
Mary Larakers, a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer, countered that the regulations weren't originally envisioned to allow immigrants who have been ordered to leave the country to remain indefinitely while they exhaust all of their legal options.
Monday's hearing comes after the ACLU filed legal briefs last week revealing how officials for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service in New England are closely coordinating with their Immigration and Customs Enforcement counterparts to arrest immigrants as they attend required interviews for the citizenship process.
Drug czar discusses opioids, overdoses
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Jim Carroll, President Donald Trump's nominee for drug czar, Monday visited a city reeling from more than 100 recent overdoses on synthetic marijuana.
Carroll met with New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, first responders, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to discuss the overdoses, as well as the country's opioid crisis.
Authorities responded to more than 100 overdoses from synthetic marijuana on Wednesday and Thursday, mostly on the New Haven Green, a historic downtown park next to Yale University. No deaths were reported.
Carroll praised paramedics, police and firefighters for their response to the overdoses.
On Monday, police said that 47 people overdosed, including some who were taken to hospitals multiple times after consuming the drug again once treated. Many of the people who fell ill were in treatment for addiction to other drugs, officials said.
Officials blamed a potent batch of K2, also known as spice, and three people were arrested in the investigation of the overdoses.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/21/2018