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ByCoreyWilliams The Associated Press DETROIT Darnell Earley didn'tcomeupwiththeplan to channel corrosive river water into Flint's old lead- lined water pipes, causing a health emergency. And he certainly can't be blamed for the Detroit school sys- tem's decaying facilities and wrecked finances, which have prompted teacher boy- cotts this month. But the 64-year-old bud- get expert was in charge of Flint's city government and the Detroit schools at key points in their recent tur- moil, and that has made him a focal point of anger about Gov. Rick Snyder's use of "emergency manag- ers" to temporarily run pub- lic entities in Michigan that are hopelessly in debt. Earley, who had a 40- year career in public ad- ministration in Michi- gan, was one of seven out- side controllers appointed in the last five years to fix foundering cities or school districts, and he was clearly one of Snyder's go-to guys, getting two of the toughest cases in Flint and the De- troit schools. In October 2013, he took over control of Flint, a majority black city of 100,000 north of Detroit where more than 40 per- cent of the population was below the poverty line. He was the third of four man- agers sent in to cut costs and deal with the city's $13 million deficit. Earley seemed like a per- fect fit for the blue-collar city. He grew up as one of nine children in an Afri- can-American family in Muskegon Heights, a small community along Lake Michigan, the son of an auto factory worker and a homemaker. He worked his way through college at Grand Valley State University and earned a master's degree in public administration from Western Michigan Univer- sity in Kalamazoo. He also knew Flint. He worked as city adminis- trator in 2001 and served a short stint as Flint's tem- porary mayor in 2002, as part of a career that also in- cluded a stint as city man- ager in Saginaw. However, the personal connections didn't defuse the tension in seizing con- trol of all fiscal decisions from locally elected offi- cials. "They don't listen to no- body," longtime Flint City Councilman Scott Kincaid said of emergency manag- ers. "They don't care about the community. They just care about fixing the fi- nances." Kincaid and others said the managers' tendency to ignore local complaints played a role in the water fiasco, since residents had complained about taste and color of the water. Whenever Flint City Council members wanted to speak with Earley, they would have to get appoint- ments, said Councilman Wantwaz Davis. "We couldn't just walk in his office," Davis said. "He's egotistical, very arrogant. Whenever he sets his mind to something, it's going in that direction." Another emergency man- ager, Louis Schimmel, who temporarily ran the cities of Hamtramck, Ecorse and Pontiac, defended Earley, saying bruised feelings are unavoidable. In a city like Flint, he said, "You're dealing with multiple problems and you don't have very much help." During Earley's 16 months as Flint's emer- gency manager, the city went ahead with a plan to save money by switch- ing its water supply from the Detroit system to a new pipeline consor- tium, and to use Flint River water until the new pipeline was ready. However, anti-corrosion agents were not added to the salty river water, causing metal leaching in city pipes and dan- gerously elevated lead levels among some res- idents. The state declared an emergency and began dis- tributing bottled water. Earley declined to speak to The Associated Press, but he defended his work Sun- day on WDIV-TV. "I don't look at it in terms of blame. ... I came along at a time when this project was already underway and it fell to me to oversee im- plementation of it," he said of using the river. "More facts like that need to be sought out instead of just trying to find someone or something to blame for it." But some local officials say he shares in the respon- sibility. "Darnell and the peo- ple in public works and fi- nance in the city believed they could save between $6 million and $8 million. ... And this is what we've got because of that," said Kin- caid, who has served on the city council for 30 years. Snyder praised Ear- ley when he announced his appointment as emer- gency manager for Detroit's schools a year ago. "Darnell Earley has a track record of success and can guide the district as we work collec- tively and collaboratively to turnaround the fiscal crisis and ensure a quality edu- cation for the city's school children that they need and deserve." But teachers union of- ficials say he hasn't re- sponded well enough to their complaints about leaky roofs, rodents and mold in school buildings. Snyder has proposed a legislative bailout for the schools. Earley has said he un- derstands teachers' frustra- tions, but criticized their or- ganized sick-outs. "He would say 'yeah, yeah,' but he never did any- thing to diffuse what was going on or showed teach- ers that he respected them," said Detroit Federation of Teachers President Ivy Bai- ley. "You send Mr. Earley from Flint to Detroit. He mismanaged Flint and now he's mismanaged Detroit's schools," Bailey said. "That is horrific." MICHIGAN Problemsshowri overemergencymanagers ASSOCIATEDPRESSPHOTOS This is the Flint River near downtown Flint, Mich. Flint's water became contaminated with lead when the city switched from the Detroit municipal system and began drawing from the Flint River in April 2014to save the financially struggling city money. A sign sits in front of Flint city hall as Genesee County Volunteer Militia members and protesters gather for a rally on Sunday over the city's ongoing water crisis. By Denise Lavoie The Associated Press BOSTON A decade after a group of smokers from Mas- sachusetts sued Philip Mor- ris USA to try to force the cigarette maker to pay for lung cancer screenings, the case will finally be heard by a jury. Smokers in the class-ac- tion lawsuit allege Philip Morris manufactured a de- fective cigarette knowing it could have made a safer product with fewer carcin- ogens. The closely watched case heads to trial this week in federal court in Boston. They are not seeking money, but instead want to compel Philip Morris to pay for highly detailed, three- dimensional chest scans that can detect signs of early-stage lung cancer that may be too small to show up on traditional X-rays. The jury will be asked to decide whether Philip Mor- ris made Marlboro ciga- rettes that are unreason- ably dangerous. If the jury finds in favor of the smok- ers, a second phase will be held to determine how a medical monitoring pro- gram will be administered. No smokers are expected to testify during the first phase. Instead, it will be a trial of dueling experts. The plaintiffs plan to call a former Philip Morris em- ployee to testify that feasi- ble alternative designs of Marlboros have existed for decades. They also plan to call a psychologist who will testify that given a choice between Marlboros or a safer cigarette, a non-ad- dicted, informed person would choose the safer al- ternative. Philip Morris is expected to call experts in cigarette design and marketing who are likely to testify that the company's lower-tar and lower-nicotine cigarettes — on the market since the late 1970s —have failed to gain a significant market share among any group of smoker. Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University and anti-smok- ing activist, said past law- suits seeking to force to- bacco companies to pro- vide medical monitoring have failed. But Daynard said he be- lieves the Massachusetts case has a stronger chance of succeeding because re- cent studies have found that the sophisticated screening can save lives. "What's happened is you have better technol- ogy which captures the tu- mors at a much earlier stage where there's a very good chance that if you get them that the person ... is proba- bly not going to die from it," Daynard said. A Philip Morris spokes- man declined to comment, and lawyers for the com- pany did not respond to messages. In court documents, the company denied that its cig- arettes are defectively de- signed. CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT Case seeking cancer screenings for smokers heads to trial RANDAL S. ELLOWAY DDS IMPLANT DENTISTRY 2426 SO. MAIN ST., RED BLUFF 530-527-6777 Askyourselfthefollowingquestions: Are you missing one or more of your natural teeth? Do you have a complete or partial denture that is no longer completely comfortable? Have you ever been embarrassed by a denture or a bridge? 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HEALTH » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, January 26, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B4