drinking water

Waco attorney Shank to run again for Waco’s Texas House seat

Waco bankruptcy attorney Erin Shank will announce her candidacy Sunday for the Texas House of Representatives seat Charles “Doc” Anderson will leave at the end of the term.

Shank will make her announcement Sunday on the 40th anniversary of her becoming a lawyer. This will be her second time to run for Texas House District 56 as a Democrat. She lost to Anderson in the last election. He will not seek reelection next year, after ten terms in the position.

Shank said two issues that loom large in her mind as motivators for a second run are a bill proposed in the Legislature’s last regular session that would revoke regulations on the dairy farms up the Bosque River from Waco, and border security.

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“The Constitution makes border security a matter of federal jurisdiction, but I have been talking with state legislators and state senators about laws we can pass to improve things down there,” Shank said in a phone interview.

“We can work on the humanitarian problem and secure the border,” she said. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time. State reps can push the issue forward.”

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How rising water costs could drive this Michigan city to bankruptcy

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. — Surrounded by some of the largest fresh bodies of water in the country, many Michigan cities still struggle to provide their residents with safe and affordable drinking water.

That irony is especially painful in Highland Park, Michigan, an enclave city surrounded by Detroit, may be facing bankruptcy over tens of millions of dollars in water bills — the costly aftermath of a financial crisis that left residents without a working water plant.

READ MORE: How segregation and neglect left Benton Harbor, Michigan with toxic water

Highland Park Mayor Glenda McDonald asked the city council to approve hiring an attorney to help prepare for its mediation in May over its water debt with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). When the council did not approve this request, the mayor declared a state of emergency and asked the state to approve an expedited bankruptcy to get their financial affairs in order.

“Highland Park’s annual water and sewer bills of $7,000,000, and growing, are almost as much as our total property tax collections of $9,000,000 per year,” McDonald said in a statement in April.

McDonald also said it is “unjust and unconscionable” for 2,000 households in Highland Park

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