Tagged: Stateside

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.

All this week, Bridge Magazine has run a series of in-depth stories delving into Michigan's gun culture.

Guns in Michigan explores a wide range of questions including what happens at the point where gun rights and public safety intersect?

And how pervasive is gun violence in Michigan?

Pat Shellenbarger wrote the series.

He's a writer based in West Michigan. If his name sounds familiar, it could be because he was a reporter and editor at the Detroit News as well as The Grand Rapids Press and the St Petersburg Times.

He joined us on Stateside today, listen to the audio above.

The zombie apocalypse has spread to Spartan Nation.

This week, hundreds of Michigan State students are participating in the third annual "Spartans versus Zombies" game.

Here's an 'informational video':

Michigan Radio's Cynthia Canty spoke with Shannon Mazurie, who helped bring the game to campus and is the organizer of this year's event.

Listen to the audio above to find out if and how Spartans are surviving, how zombies "eat" humans, and how Spartans manage to make it to class with zombies chasing them.

Mixed martial arts can be traced far into the history of sport fighting. The full contact sport has competitive roots in Brazil and Japan and allows players to hit and strike one another when standing or on the ground, much like wrestling.

Last Saturday, a 35-year-old mixed martial art fighter died after an amateur fight in Port Huron.

Following the death, State Representative Harvey Santana (D-Detroit) from the 9th district in Detroit was able to push a package of reform bills through the House that would finally regulate amateur MMA fights in the state of Michigan.