It has been a meaningful year for Michigan -- read the stories below to reflect on some of the highlights that Michigan Radio covered this year.
People around the world were stunned in early 2018 when more than 150 women testified at the sentencing of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor who sexually abused patients for more than 20 years. How did he escape justice for decades, and how was he able to maintain his appearance as the good guy, the ally, the protector? Michigan Radio’s podcast received extremely positive reviews and topped the charts in Apple Podcasts.
What happens when community members lead the conversation about their community? Instead of unearthing city stories from a distance, Imani Mixon, a Detroit-based and embraced journalist who grew up in MorningSide, was embedded in the community working closely with residents to produce their own stories about their own experiences.
Our series "Mornings in Michigan" captures the sounds of morning rituals and routines from across our state. Take a visit to Eastern Market on a bustling Saturday morning, find yourself in nature with the pleasant sounds of bird calls surrounding you, and wake up to asacred chant from a loadspeaker on top of the American Moslem Society in Dearborn, Mich.
On a chilly morning, 118 autumns ago, the residents of a tiny village along a lake in Northern Michigan were forced out of their homes and kicked off the land they had legally purchased. The residents were native people, members of what was then called the Cheboiganing Band of Indians.
The change happened slowly. White families began leaving Detroit neighborhoods, a process that accelerated after the 1967 riots. But it took further decades of flight and deterioration for this part of Detroit’s east side to look like it does today.
Is this pregnant activist in prison for defending herself and her family?
A 26-year-old, pregnant environmental activist is serving a two-year sentence at Michigan’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility right now.
But Siwatu-Salama Ra says she acted in self-defense when she pulled a gun on another woman last summer during an altercation outside her mother’s Detroit home.
