Leid Stories – 10.19.15

St Louis Nuclear Waste Dump Near Ferguson Threatened by Fire
The Tamir Rice Case: Are Legal Strategies Failing Once Again?
Investigative journalist Paul DeRienzo, who has been reporting on the catastrophic consequences of America’s military and corporate nuclear-development and waste-disposal operations and programs, reports that the City of St. Louis has come up with an evacuation plan, should a “catastrophic event” occur at a landfill, near Ferguson, containing radioactive waste.

“Much has been written about the poverty and deep-seated racism in Ferguson,” DeRienzo says, “but little has been said of the environmental racism” besieging the city.

Samaria Rice—the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by a rookie police officer in Cleveland last Nov. 22—and lawyers representing the family on Friday called for an independent special prosecutor to handle the case. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty has not yet presented the case to a grand jury, but has released two “expert” reports concurring that the officer’s actions were “reasonable.”

Alton H. Maddox Jr., an expert on police-brutality cases, including cases that set a precedent for the appointment of special prosecutors, raises questions about the lawyers’ strategies.