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The 8th

Every Democrat in Michigan is having the same conversation right now.

Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders speaking into separate microphones
Gage Skidmore / Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

Biden, Sanders compete for minority voters in Michigan

Michigan is a large, diverse state, and presidential candidates have been courting minority voters here in the days leading up to Tuesday’s primaries. For a closer look at the influence of minority populations in this election cycle, Michigan Radio Morning Edition host Doug Tribou spoke with Michigan State University political science professor Nazita Lajevardi .

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Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio

A pair of storm sewers are being rerouted around Flint’s former Buick City site to try and keep PFAS out of the Flint River.

“We have on the site some storm water lines, old ones, that when they’re below the groundwater table, contaminated groundwater can leak into those storm sewers and migrate to the river,” says Grant Trigger. He's the cleanup manager for the former General Motors properties in Michigan. 

Trigger says they’ll spend the next three to four months replacing more than 3,600 feet of storm sewer lines.

When we say we don't know jack about something, it's not immediately clear that we're toeing the line with taboo territory.

Allow us to explain.


Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio

Flint voters on Tuesday are being asked to support a change in how their school taxes are spent.

Voters are being asked to approve extending a current millage that raises money for capital expenses. But school officials are asking voters to allow the millage to be used to pay down the district's debt more quickly.

Doctor's stethoscope
Pixabay.com

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -  Michigan health insurers say they will cover the cost of medically necessary tests for the new coronavirus for people covered under employer and individual health plans. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, meanwhile, announced late Friday the waiving of testing and treatment fees for Medicaid recipients. Michigan currently has no known COVID-19 cases, but infections have been identified in about half of the states. Plans that will waive copays and deductibles for testing costs include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Care Network, Priority Health, CVS Health, McLaren and Meridian.

Gary Jones stands at a UAW podium
United Auto Workers

The biggest of the United Auto Workers’ bad apples fell to earth this week in the crackdown on union corruption.

The feds charged former President Gary Jones with embezzling union funds in a racketeering conspiracy … and with defrauding the IRS of income taxes. Each of the counts could land the 63-year-old union leader in prison for up to five years.

Mark Brush / Michigan Radio

Enbridge Energy is advancing plans for a bedrock tunnel for its Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. 

CDC / wikimedia commons

Officials say five people who worked in a Michigan wildlife disease lab were diagnosed last year with a latent form of tuberculosis.

The Department of Natural Resources lab processes thousands of deer heads during hunting season to check for chronic wasting disease and bovine TB.

a barn sits behind a row of crops
Bob Jagendorf / FLICKR - HTTP://J.MP/1SPGCL0

Today on Stateside, as the remaining presidential contenders make for Michigan, can Bernie Sanders repeat his success of 2016 in Tuesday’s primary? Or will Joe Biden close the sale with voters he's connected with in the past? Plus, a renewal millage to fund the Detroit Institute of Arts is on the ballot in three counties. Some Detroit residents think the museum has taken attention away from more pressing challenges in the city.

GOP elephant, Dem donkey
Donkey Hotey / Creative Commons

Political parties usually love to get voters to switch to their side, but sometimes they’d just as soon have them stay put.

Primaries can be a time of political tricks by party loyalists who switch their stripes for a day in order to influence the other party's results.

John Auchter / Michigan Radio

I'm sure many of you have seen the meme going around social media meant to assuage voters whose preferred presidential candidate has dropped. It's just a block of words that says this:

Time to remember the best voting advice I have heard: Voting isn't marriage, it's public transportation. You are not waiting for "the one" who is absolutely perfect. You are getting the bus. And if there isn't one going exactly to your destination, you don't stay at home and sulk — you take the one going closest to where you want to be.

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Life on the Inside: Stories from a Michigan prison

Stateside’s series captures what life is like for the people who live and work inside Lakeland Correctional Facility.

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