Tagged: Stateside

It’s been a week since Governor Snyder announced Kevyn Orr as Detroit’s emergency manager.

Orr, begins his new job on Monday.

Today, Business Columnist at the Detroit News Danel Howes wrote a column saying Detroit's situation is reminiscent of General Motors circa 2008.

He argues that what it really takes is an outsider - someone who isn’t inside of the financial problem - to fix things.

That’s what happened with the auto bankruptcy as well.

That creates a problem, particularly for Orr. There's a certain level of distrust among Detroiters who think Orr “isn’t one of us” - that he can’t really understand “our” problems.

What of the very strong cry that bringing in this unelected outside manager effectively strips Detroit citizens of their right to elect their leader?

Howes wrote in today’s column:

"Detroit's culture of denial, dysfunction and entitlement, as obvious in the city's slide as it was in the auto bankruptcies, is a primary reason change here eventually is imposed from the outside."

We’ve seen the auto companies come back from the fiscal edge.

And much like what happened with the auto industry, he argues that over time those associated with the past failures begin to be sidelined and new leadership begins to emerge.

This is the narrative that Howes believes we’ll see from Detroit in due time.

To hear our full interview with Howes, click the link above.

When you think of Masonic Temple, chances are you think of the shows you've seen in the grand theater or the smaller Scottish Rite Cathedral.

But to a growing group of fans, the Masonic Temple is the arena for roller derby.

Masonic Temple is the home rink of the Detroit Derby Girls, the official roller derby team in Detroit.

It has been nearly 150 years since the beaver has made its presence known along the Detroit and Rouge Rivers.

The hardy little critters were done- in by trappers and toxic water.

Beavers played a major role in Detroit's early history. The beaver and the coureur des bois who traded their pelts and helped the Great Lakes region grow.

Lucky for today's beavers, there's no demand for those shiny men's hats that were in fashion in the 1800s.

There have been encouraging signs that the beaver and other species are enjoying a resurgence in Michigan.

John Hartig is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and he seems pretty happy about the news.

He calls this, "one of the most dramatic ecological recovery stories in North America."

What does this tell us about efforts to clean up our waters and the tenacity of animal species?

Hartig tells us about the signs showing that beaver are coming back to southeast Michigan and the evidence of "beaver life."

To hear the full report, click the link above.

Millions of undocumented immigrants in this country are hoping this is the year for immigration reform. On today's show, we explore what the future holds for mixed-status families.

And, it's being called "one of the most dramatic ecological recovery stories in North America." Why beavers along the Detroit River are such a big deal.

And, it’s been a week now since Governor Snyder announced Kevyn Orr as Detroit’s emergency manager, and it was a week ago that we last spoke with Daniel Howes, business columnist at the Detroit News. We checked in with Howes about the prospect of a Detroit recovery.

All that, and roller derbies and march madness, on today's show.

Organizations are filing legal actions against the state's new emergency manager law.

One of the very vocal groups opposed to the law is the Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. 

"At its most basic level, we believe that there's a fundamental right in this country, that if you're going to have a government, that government has to be an elected body and a representative government," said John Philo, the legal director at the Sugar Law Center.

"Under [the emergency manager] law, the emergency management becomes the governing body. It's important to keep in mind that the law doesn't confine their governments to financial matters. The problem with this law is that you're giving full governing power, not just finances [to the emergency manager]. You're putting that one person, who is unelected and unaccountable to the people, in power," he said.

In January, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the law, and allowed Public Act 72 to stay in place until the new version takes effect March 28. 

Michigan Radio's Cynthia Canty spoke with Philo about his thoughts on the emergency manager law and what it says about our state government.

To hear the full report, click the link above.

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?