Stateside with Cynthia Canty

In a recent study by L.R. Polk, none of the top ten car companies that women prefer were domestic.

Susan Ianni, the general manager of Gordon Chevrolet of Garden City, argued otherwise.

"Women here love domestic cars," she said. "It's in other parts of the country where the problem lies. Women aren't even looking at domestic cars. They aren't even on their shopping list. Women are going for the car they're driving which is probably a foreign car, so they're going back to that dealership and not giving domestic cars a chance."

So what was this study getting at and why do some women prefer foreign cars?

Almost 14,000 kids in Michigan have been taken out of their own homes by the state because of an abuse or neglect allegation.

Those kids then rely upon the state's Department of Human Services (DHS) to keep them safe and put them in an environment where they have a chance to thrive. Most of those kids end up in foster care.

Six years ago the state was sued by the advocacy group Children's Rights over treatment of kids in its care.

The state was back in court today to see where things stand. Everyone agrees things have gotten better since the lawsuit started six years ago, but the court appointed monitor said too many kids are still unsafe.

Filmmaker Ken Burns is hands-down one of the world's leading creators of documentaries.

He has helped modern-day audiences understand and appreciate The Civil War, World War II, the jazz age, prohibition, baseball, the Shakers, America's national parks and many more aspects of American life.

Now, he is returning to Ann Arbor, the town of his boyhood.

He'll be here to talk about race and inequality as part of the Penny W. Stamps lecture series but more importantly to present his film, "The Central Park Five" at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

There are seven new police officers patrolling the streets of Flint. They were hired as part of a public safety millage approved by Flint voters last November.

The millage is expected to generate $5.3 million this year, but what's going to happen in future years as the population keeps shrinking and property values drop?

With the recent hiring of seven officers, the Flint Police Department now has 124 officers. That is down from an estimated 350 officers when times were better.

Will these new officers help make a dent in Flint's crime rate? Flint is in the unenviable spot near the top of many of the "most violent city" lists.

Kevin Smith is the president of the Flint Police Officer's Association.

He mentioned that the seven new officers won't make a big difference any time soon.  We asked what it would take, in terms of staffing, to make Flint noticeably safer.

To hear the full interview, click the link above.

Today on the show, the city of Flint recently hired seven new police officers, but some say that might not be enough to make a noticeable difference on the streets.

We explore public safety in the one of the nation's most violent cities.

And, new data show women in the U.S. prefer foreign-made cars to domestics. We find out why and talk about what it will take for the Detroit Three to win over those women.

And there are almost fourteen thousand children in Michigan who have been taken out of their own homes by the state because of an abuse or neglect allegation.

Those kids rely upon the state to keep them safe and put them in an environment where they have a chance to thrive.

Six years ago, the state was sued over treatment of kids in its care. The state was back in court today to see where things stand. Michigan Radio's Sarah Alvarez brought us a report.

State lawmakers are beginning to wrap up their work for this session before they head out for their Spring recess.

It seems it’s as good a time as any to review what they have (and haven’t) accomplished since the beginning of the New Year.

Governor Snyder  has not been getting a whole lot of love from fellow Republicans. He announced he will take federal money to expand Medicaid rolls in the state.

But Republicans aren’t happy with this. They say they want Medicaid “reform” in exchange for their support.  Is Snyder going to be willing to make this type of deal? After all, he likes to say he doesn’t engage in ‘horse-trading.’

Meanwhile, Governor Snyder signed the Blue Cross/Blue Shield bills into law on Monday. He vetoed the law originally, last year, after it was passed in the lame-duck session of the legislature with measures having to do with abortions that he didn’t like.

And, something we’ve talked a lot about here on Stateside: the creation of a health care exchange mandated under the Affordable Health Care Act.

Michigan will be a hybrid, run between the state and federal government. At first, it was the state House that was dragging its feet. Now, Republican state Senators are stalling on the creation.

The following is a summary of the above audio. To hear the full interview, click above.

It's been five days since Governor Snyder presented Kevyn Orr as the emergency manager of Detroit.

Many were quick to comment about Orr’s “introduction” to Michigan and that he seemed well-suited for the job.

He is a U-M law school alumnus, an attorney specializing in bankruptcy law and he helped guide Chrysler through its bankruptcy.

At his introductory press conference last Thursday with Governor Snyder and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Kevyn Orr certainly seemed ready and willing  to take on the gargantuan task of “fixing” Detroit’s dire financial crisis.

Within the first day of that press conference, it was reported that Orr had some financial troubles of his own. He had liens on his home over unpaid unemployment insurance taxes.

"It is quite embarrassing when something like that comes up, but I took care of that as soon as I could and paid it off," Orr said. "Frankly, I have been too focused on my professional obligations and not as focused enough on my private obligations."

We all know that last week Kevyn Orr was appointed as Detroit's emergency manager by Governor Rick Snyder.

But as the nation watches the city undergo major financial restructuring, there's an important story left out of the spotlight. 

According to a story by Pulitzer-prize winning reporter David Ashenfelter, the state of Michigan owes the city of Detroit nearly $700 million due to a deal between Mayor Archer and Governor Engler that was made in 1998.

Last year, we saw Krystal Crittendon, the now-fired head of the City's Law Department file an unsuccessful lawsuit to void the consent agreement between the City and Detroit.

Now, as Detroit begins to rebuild itself with Orr's help, we've got to wonder, would Detroit be in the same position if the state had kept up its end of the bargain?

Michigan Radio's Cynthia Canty spoke with Ashenfelter about the state's promise on Stateside.

To hear the full interview, click the link above. 

We are all going to die. It's one of the sadder facts of life.

For most people, it's also one of the hardest things to talk about.

In 1986, Dave Kampfschulte's good friend was dying of lung cancer, even though he had never smoked a cigarette.

Dave's experience made him realize that we all could benefit from more preparation and conversation about death.

What do we lose if we choose not to have these conversations?

After 25 years of hospice volunteering, Kampfschulte has writen a book called I'm Dying to Talk with You:  Twenty-five years of conversations on end of life decisions in which he discusses conversations we need to have with ourselves and with others about end of life experiences. 

To hear the full interview, click the link above.

Every day, the workforce in Michigan is getting grayer.

In 2001, the concentration of workers 55 and older was 12.1 percent. In 2011, that percentage jumped to 19.1 percent.

For decades experts have predicted the huge group of babyboomers would influence the economy as they aged, but what does that mean for Michigan employers?

Which industries have the highest concentrations of older workers and what does that mean for college students who want jobs after they graduate?

Michigan Radio's Cynthia Canty spoke with Jacob Bisel, a senior economic analyst at the Michigan Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, about what Michigan's workforce means for young job seekers and Michigan employers.

To hear the full interview, click the link above.

On today's show, we have a conversation with

Kevyn Orr, the newly announced emergency manager for the city of Detroit. We spoke with Orr about the tremendous task ahead: trying to right the course for the state's largest city in the midst of a crushing financial crisis.

But first we went to Lansing, where state lawmakers are beginning to wrap up their work so far for this session before they head out for their Spring recess.

So, it seems it’s as good a time as any to review what they have – and haven’t – accomplished since the beginning of the New Year. We spoke with Capitol Bureau Chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network Rick Pluta about the winter session.

And we talk about end of life decisions, Michigan's graying workforce, and a lost deal between the state and the city of Detroit.

With the Supreme Court set to take up two cases involving same sex marriage, the issue is on many minds.

On today's show, we head Up North where a Native American tribe is one of the first in the country to legalize same sex marriage.

And, a unique exhibition of prisoner art reflects life for those artists in-prison and once they re-enter society.

But first today, it seems there’s a fair degree of attention paid to the question of trust.

It seems there’s a fair degree of attention paid to the question of trust, as in, “how much do citizens trust their elected officials?”

We’ve seen citizen trust in the federal government drop dramatically.

And surveys find that, while citizens tend to trust state government more than the federal government and their local government more than federal and state, those citizen to government trust levels tend to be low.

But has anyone ever asked how much do elected officials trust their citizens?

Trust is a two-way street.  Yet, this question gets virtually no attention.

That’s why CLOSUP, the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, decided to put that question to local government leaders in its recent Michigan Public Policy Survey.

It’s an interesting “snapshot” of the state of trust between us and the people we’ve elected to lead us.

We sat down with Tom Ivacko from CLOSUP to tell us what exactly happened when politicians were asked if they trust the people that voted for them.

Listen to the full interview above.
 

What would it take to get humans to Mars?

For the last seven months, NASA's rover 'Curiosity' has crawled all over the planet's dusty red Gale Crater.

As it explores, the rover has sent back all sorts of information to Earth for further investigation.

Most recently, a report of a rock sample collected by Curiosity shows that, yes, ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

But let's go one step further. What would it take for human beings to get to Mars?

Ben Longmier is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan College of Engineering and researches electric propulsion, spacecraft design and basic plasma physics.

Michigan Radio's Cynthia Canty spoke with Longmier about the challenges and possibilities of getting humans on Mars.

Click the link above to hear the full interview.

Students who attend a public Kalamazoo high school for their entire high school career and live in the district during those four years have the opportunity to attend a Michigan college or University for free.

This, of course, is old news.

The Kalamazoo Promise was announced in November 2005 and has since proven to be one of the most groundbreaking educational programs in the state.