Category: CNN Regional

By Jack Springgate

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    WASHTENAW COUNTY, Michigan (WWJ) — The family of Krystal Clark is taking legal action in hopes of moving their loved one out of the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

This comes after a woman serving time there died in early July, the fourth in a span of just two months.

Clark’s family says she’s 11 months away from completing her sentence at the facility for a crime she committed in 2010. However, they fear that if she’s there any longer, she might not make it to her release date alive.

The family filed a motion on Monday to have the Michigan Department of Corrections move Krystal to a facility that can appropriately address her numerous medical concerns while she serves the rest of her sentence.

“With the recent deaths, with her condition, if there was ever a time to have this filed, it is now,” said attorney Shiraz Khan.

“This emergency motion is to have her transferred out of that facility into a medically safe facility,” Khan added.

Last week, 62-year-old Dalephenia Jones died on July 2, becoming the fourth woman at the facility to die in recent months. Three other women, Rebecca Fackler, Khiara Howard and Ashley Hoath, died in May and June.

The motion filed by Clark’s family cited her mold allergy, respiratory issues and ongoing infectious disease behind the request for special accommodations.

“Before it gets any worse, we’re asking them to remove her from that facility and place her somewhere she can get the proper treatment that she needs to get better,” said Clark’s son, Larry Evans.

One woman who says she knew Clark while serving a sentence says the prison’s conditions are unsafe.

“Over time, the condition of the facility and these pre-existing medical issues have collaborated and have caused these terminal ill diseases,” said Dominica Simms.

Another woman who claims she was fired from the prison for speaking up about issues at the facility says the string of recent deaths doesn’t surprise her based on her experience.

“I’m not shocked by it because nothing is being done. People come forward, and they get fired for coming forward. There’s very few people in there that I trust,” said former WHV mental health worker Andi Allen.

The Michigan Department of Corrections says independent environmental tests at the facility show no dangerous amounts of toxic or black mold. Officials also say Clark’s condition does not warrant a transfer to another facility, as they claim to provide continuing medical care and treatment for her that’s consistent with her medical needs.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Dan Raby

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    Atlanta (WUPA) — A sheriff’s deputy in Georgia has been fired and taken into custody after officials say an audit revealed she had misused the county’s Flock License Plate Reader system.

Former Greene County Deputy Quinsha Goss is facing charges of violating her oath of office and violating the prohibition on law enforcement retaining license plate data obtained from automated license plate recognition systems.

Authorities say an audit of the system on June 30 found that Goss had accessed the system for personal reasons multiple times over a three-month period. While details about the alleged unauthorized access remain limited, officials say she had conducted searches involving at least one license plate without the required law enforcement justification.

Goss was arrested on Tuesday, and her employment has been terminated, the sheriff’s office said in a release. The investigation remains active.

Goss’ arrest and firing come just a day after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested five police officers in Albany, Georgia, accusing them of misusing their access to that city’s Flock Safety System. All five have also been fired.

In June, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office charged and fired two of its supervisors for allegedly misusing the county’s system.

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By Penny Kmitt, Kristina Rex

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — Thousands of nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston went on strike early Wednesday morning in the largest nurses strike in Massachusetts history.

The hospital said patient care will not be affected. It has hired nearly 1,300 replacement nurses to cover shifts for the next five days. The strike is scheduled for one day, but the nurses will be locked out for four more days. The hospital said that’s because the replacement nurses are contracted for five days of work.

The crowd outside the hospital grew so large at one point Boston Police temporarily shut down Francis Street in the Longwood medical area.

BWH nurses strike issues Mass General Brigham, which operates the hospital, has been negotiating two contracts for several months – one for the 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women’s and another for nearly 500 home health care workers. Both sides are stuck on pay.

The union that represents the nurses, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said the hospital is proposing zero-percent raises.

The hospital said its nurses are some of the highest paid in the country, with an average salary of more than $147,000. The hospital also argues that their proposal keeps an annual five percent pay raise that’s part of the wage scale, adding that their offer “appropriately recognizes our nurses’ important contributions while balancing our responsibility to sustain patient care.”

“We need to be inside taking care of our patients, not out here. This is on the Brigham, not on us,” said union representative Jen Devincent.

While tensions ran high outside, they allegedly boiled over inside, with nurses in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

“They were set to leave at 7 a.m. and they were told they can’t leave because of patient safety. So, they actually blocked the elevators from letting them leave,” said Devincent.

Two spokespersons for the hospital told WBZ-TV that did not happen.

Some patients and families are worried what the strike will do to the quality of care at the hospital.

“Patients are here on some of the worst days of their life, nurses are literally bringing you through that time,” said hematology patient Kojo Acheanpong.

“I’m terrified for my dad’s care,” said Peter Caikauskas. His father had a double lung transplant in February and is still at patient at the Brigham. “But I support the nurses 110 percent.”

MGB home health care workers strike More than 450 Mass General Brigham home health care clinicians also walked off the job in Braintree Wednesday after what they said has been 15 months of negotiations.

“We’ve been at the table looking for patient safety, changes to our working conditions. We’re looking for case load limits. We’re looking for productivity metrics so that we’re not working unpaid hours at the end of every day. And we’re looking for wage increases to make it more competitive so that we can retain experienced staff,” said Shannon Viera, a nurse with MGB Home Care. “We’re small compared to the Brigham but what we do is really important.”

The hospital said the strike will not affect scheduled appointments unless patients are notified directly about a change.

The nurses strike and lockout is scheduled to end on Monday, July 13 at 7 a.m.

The home health care workers strike is set to end on Wednesday, July 15 at 8 a.m., the hospital said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Anthony Bettin

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    MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — An environmental group is suing Hennepin County, alleging it has violated state law by not outlining plans for harmful ash created by a trash-burning plant in downtown Minneapolis set to close in the coming years.

The lawsuit from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy concerns the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center. It cites state law requiring counties to “clearly state how the county plans to meet the goals … of reducing the toxicity and quantity of incinerator ash and of reducing the quantity of processing residuals that require disposal.”

“Hennepin County has not clearly stated how the county plans to meet the goals of reducing the toxicity and quantity of incinerator ash in its most recent waste plans,” the lawsuit from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy claims. “In fact, the County’s most recent plan does not address the toxicity of incinerator ash at all.”

The county told WCCO it can not comment on pending litigation, but shared a letter it sent to the group last month challenging the claim.

“Because the county’s plan already complies with [state law], and was approved by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the county has decided not to amend its Plan at this time,” the letter reads.

The letter states supplemental materials from the plan “outline the county’s household and commercial hazardous waste programs which reduce ash toxicity by removing harmful substances from the waste stream before incineration” and “describe post-incineration metal recovery efforts that reduce the quantity of ash necessitating disposal and HERC operational procedures which prevent harmful substances from being incinerated.”

WCCO has also reached out to MCEA.

The lawsuit claims the incinerator generates “around 80,000 tons of toxic incinerator ash” every year, and that the ash “contains significant levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, dioxins and furans, PFAS, and other contaminants.”

The suit asks a judge to compel the county to provide a clear plan for the ash in compliance with state law.

Hennepin County plans to close HERC sometime between 2028 and 2040. The facility, built in 1989, produces enough energy to power about 25,000 homes, according to the county. Earlier this year, activists staged a hunger strike to get it shut down sooner, alleging the facility poisons those who live near it in Minneapolis’ North Loop.

Conor Wight contributed to this report.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Steven Rosenbaum

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    DALLAS, Texas (KTVT) — Attorneys representing Karmelo Anthony filed two legal motions on Tuesday as they attempt to overturn the 19-year-old’s murder conviction in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf.

According to a news release from the advocacy group Stand With Karmelo Coalition, Anthony’s legal defense team filed a motion for Collin County District Judge John Roach to “be removed from presiding over all remaining post-trial proceedings.”

They also filed a motion for a new trial, that raises “constitutional and legal challenges stemming from the trial, and is requesting that those issues be decided by an independent judge,” the release said.

Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison following the trial last month, which garnered protests, national headlines and racial tensions.

In June, a group of well-known civil rights and criminal defense attorneys announced they are would represent Anthony pro bono in his appeals.

Dallas appellate attorney David Coale, who has handled appeals for decades, told CBS News Texas after the trial that Anthony’s team could have several strong arguments over whether the trial was handled correctly.

Anthony’s supporters raised numerous concerns about the fairness of the trial, including that there were no Black members of the jury; Anthony is Black and Metcalf was White.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.