Stateside Staff

Governor Snyder says he wants more than a billion dollars just this year to pay for road and bridge repairs.

Our state has seriously bad roads that lawmakers in Lansing appear to agree on.

How to pay for road repairs is a whole other story.

We’ve talked a lot on Stateside about the different options to raise the money for these repairs.

Many Republicans appear unwilling to vote for any increase in taxes.  Amidst facing a possible primary challenge, would Republicans consider voting for any possible legislation?

There have also been concerns that this funding increase would mean local governments and schools would lose upwards of $850 million in funding.

For months, Governor Snyder has been trying to get support from lawmakers, but we haven’t seen a whole lot of progress on how to increase funding.

Recently, a state House committee has begun hearings on a road funding strategy.

Chris Gautz is the capitol correspondent for Crain's Detroit Business. He sat down with us on Stateside to give us the details of the new proposal and how exactly it would work.

Listen to the full interview above.

On today's show: we continue our look at road-funding Michigan.

There's a new proposal out this week in the state House that would shift the way we pay for road and bridge repairs, but can it really pass with both Democratic and Republican support?

The so-called gang of eight have released their immigration reform proposal.

The formal introduction of the bipartisan bill  known as the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013” was filed last night at 2 a.m.

The 844 piece of legislation would enact sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration laws.

President Obama says the bill is a compromise that doesn’t give everyone everything they want, but he’s urging the Senate to move forward with it.

So we took a look at the man who likes to call himself the nation’s most pro-immigration Governor - Gov. Rick Snyder.

Rick Pluta Lansing Bureau Chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network was with the Governor this afternoon and tells us what he had to say about the introduction of this bill.

Listen to the full interview above.

As the old saying goes, "everything old is new again."

Case in point, the cassette tape.

Those of us who were music consumers in the 70's and 80's remember those cassettes rattling around in your glove compartment.

They were so much smaller than those clunky eight-track tapes and no skipping or gunk on the needles like your vinyl records.

Many people went through the cassette era  making their own mixes, working from a dual-tape unit and sharing them with friends, family and significant others.

Then came the CD, into prominence in the mid to late 80s. It was great to be able to jump right to the spot you wanted -no more fast forward and rewind.

Soon after the CD, the mp3 became popular and that is when the cassette tape became, for all intents and purposes, extinct.

But recently, the cassette tape is being revived and a Michigan-based recording label called 'Already Dead Tapes' is right out in front of this revival.

The label is run from Kalamazoo by Sean Hartman along with his Chicago-based partner Joshua Tabbia.

Sean and Joshua have said they don't think of Already Dead Tapes as a business because it's a "passion project."

Here is a video of Already Dead Tapes via the Chicago AV Club:

We’ve all heard the term “comfort food”. Well how about some “comfort music”?
 
Red Tail Ring  is a duo from Kalamazoo serving up American roots music that harkens back to gentler days, and it’s music that soothes and wraps around you like a shawl.
 
Red Tail Ring is Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo and they join us here in the studio.

Listen to the full interview above.

There are more than 37,000 homeless students in Michigan. That's up 66 percent in the last four years. On today's show, we ask why is homelessness among students on the rise even as the state economy heads towards recovery.

Later in the hour, we're joined in the studio by Red-Tail-Ring - a Kalamazoo duo serving up American roots music.

We first look at the subject of sick-leave and requiring employers to provide sick-days to their workers.

Lawmakers in Lansing are moving to block local cities and towns from passing any laws requiring businesses to offer sick leave to their workers.

Such laws have been passed in Seattle, San Francisco and several other major cities. The entire state of Connecticut, and New York City are expected to soon pass a sick leave ordinance.

Backers of these "paid sick leave" ordinances say they're designed to protect people in lower-paying jobs - the workers who stand to lose their jobs if they try to call in sick.

Republican Representative Earl Poleski of Jackson is sponsoring one of the bills that would block local governments from putting paid sick leave ordinances into place.

He joined us to talk about his bill.

In an era when we dash off a quick email or text message or a tweet, and often just as quickly deleted, the magic of a letter is something that has sadly been eclipsed.

The letter: the construction of thoughts, put down on paper, sometimes typed, sometimes hand-written, with a signature that is distinct and personal. It's something that lives on through the years. You just don't get that with a 140-character tweet.

Today we have a story that proves that letters can pack incredible power long after they have been written, long after the writers have left this earth.

Lawmakers in Lansing are moving to block local cities and towns from passing any laws requiring businesses to offer sick leave to their workers.

Such laws have been passed in Seattle, San Francisco and several other major cities. The entire state of Connecticut, and New York City are expected to soon pass a sick leave ordinance.

Backers of these "paid sick leave" ordinances say they're designed to protect people in lower-paying jobs - the workers who stand to lose their jobs if they try to call in sick.

Republican Representative Earl Poleski of Jackson is sponsoring one of the bills that would block local governments from putting paid sick leave ordinances into place.

He joined us to talk about his bill.

Listen to the full interview above.

If you could walk into any school in Michigan and look around at the students, you might not realize it, but somewhere in there you would see students who are homeless.

There are more than 37,500 homeless students in Michigan, and that's up 66 percent in the past four years. So, even as the economy begins to struggle its way toward recovery in Michigan, we have a rising number of homeless students trying to struggle their way through school.

Joining us to talk about the challenges that homelessness poses to students and to the school districts are Angela Parth, the executive director of "The Connection Youth Services" in Livingston County, and Holly Fiedler, the homeless Liaison and Social Worker at Milan Area Schools.

Listen to the full interview above.

On today's Stateside, we look beyond the debate over road funding and take a look at just how - if Governor Snyder gets his proposed $1.2 billion in transportation funding - the money will be spent: Just who would get the majority share of that money and who decides where repair funding goes?

Why is it so cold this spring?

Jeff Masters, PhD, Director of Meterology at Weather Underground, tried to shed some light on our slow seasons.

Rashida Tlaib (D) is a state representative from the 6th district and is one of 55 state and local officials who wrote a letter to four big names in Washington D.C.

Tlaib and others called on John Boehner (House Speaker), Nancy Pelosi (House Minority Leader), Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) and Mitch McConnell (Senate Minority Leader) to help lead the way on our country's immigration policies.

Let's cross our fingers and hope that spring is here to stay. As the grass gets greener and flowers begin blooming, why not welcome the warmer weather with some light spring reading?

Keith Taylor, a poet and writer, as well as a professor at the University of Michigan, has given us a few suggestions for our spring reading lists.

Don't worry, they're short.

"We should be getting outside, and working in the garden...we don't want to start reading Anna Karenina outside right now," Taylor said.

As the national debate over gun control continues, we take a look at just how pervasive gun violence is here in Michigan.

We also look at efforts to regulate Mixed Martial Arts fighting in Michigan.

And zombies are taking over MSU. Students are fighting back... with nerf guns (they work on zombies).

Later in the show, we meet a writer and fisherman who finds his inspiration in the Detroit River.

But first, we check-in with Daniel Howes, columnist at the Detroit News, about Gov. Rick Snyder's relationship with those in his party.