Stateside Staff

Today on Stateside, how "energy resilient" is Michigan? We talk to the chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission about a newly-released assessment of the state's energy infrastructure. Plus, the rise and fall of a 19th century Chrsitian utopian society in Michigan's Thumb region. 

Aimee Stephens took months to compose a letter to her employer in July 2013. It read: 

“With the support of my loving wife, I have decided to become the person that my mind already is. I cannot begin to describe the shame and suffering that I have lived with. At the end of my vacation on August 26, 2013, I will return to work as my true self, Aimee Australia Stephens, in appropriate business attire.” 

These words propelled Stephens into the heart of a legal case soon to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court ─ a potentially landmark case for the future of LGBTQ rights in this country.

Today on Stateside, a Detroit-based company tries to mediate the “plague” of tax foreclosures in the city of Detroit. Plus, we hear from a judge who might have made a legal path for LGBTQ people to go to court for discrimination even though there are no civil rights protections for them in Michigan.

Sturgeon are a long-grey, spiney, prehistoric fish that can live up to 100 years old.

But overfishing and habitat destruction has decimated their population across the state.

Governor Whitmer today made Michigan the first state to ban flavored e-cigarettes. She invoked the emergency rules after the state's chief medical executive declared that young people using e-cigarettes was a public health emergency. We hear what health experts and vaping industry leaders think about the ban.

Today on Stateside, the latest on the road funding dispute between Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Republican leadership in the Michigan Legislature. Plus, while some retirees might be getting ready to head to Florida for the winter, one Florida couple recently uprooted their life to move to Michigan to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Today on Stateside, we talk to Republican state House Speaker Lee Chatfield about the ongoing negotiations between Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Legislature over road funding and the state budget. Plus, the forgotten history of how a Grand Rapids high school became the birthplace of vocational education.

A road repair funding dispute continues to stall the approval of the state’s 2020 budget. The deadline for approving a budget is October 1. But agreement on a new budget has so far eluded Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the GOP-led legislature, hung-up on the major snag of how to fund road repairs.

Today on Stateside, negotiations over the state budget continue between Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the state Legislature. Plus, the 1930s program that rebuilt the forests of Northern Michigan after the age of lumber barons produced areas of massive clear cutting. 

With budget deadline looming, Gov. Whitmer pressures GOP legislators to reveal their road funding plan

Funeral directors help people during what are often the lowest moments in their lives. However, for some pretty obvious reasons, it is not a common career path. 

Stateside's Work in Progress series features conversations between someone just starting out in a career and someone who is reaching the end of their professional life.

Today, we introduce you to two funeral directors on either end of that spectrum.

Today on Stateside, we get a preview of the top priorities for Michigan lawmakers as they return to Lansing Tuesday for the fall legislative session. Plus, why the number of full-time librarians in Michigan schools is shrinking, and what that means for students. 

Mental health treatment has changed drastically in the past century. But it wasn’t that long ago that many people with severe mental illnesses were permanent residents at state-run psychiatric hospitals.

There were once 16 psychiatric hospitals across Michigan, including Traverse City State Hospital. An oral history project in Traverse City is shedding light on what life was like in those institutions.  

Today on Stateside, we hear about a lawsuit, filed by the Michigan Republican Party, that aims to block an independent commission from redrawing legislative maps. Plus, we talk about the tough ethical choices people face when trying to do something about climate change.

Today on Stateside, a vicious dog attack leaves Detroit residents wondering whether the city has the ability to control dangerous animals. Plus, a film festival honors the history of a West Michigan town that was once a vacation spot for black families.

Nine-year-old Emma Hernandez should be getting ready for fourth grade. Instead, her family is planning her funeral.

On Monday, the little girl was attacked and killed by three dogs as she rode her bike near her Detroit home.

The dogs' owner has been arrested and is expected to be charged today by the Wayne County Prosecutor. The three pit bulls are expected to be euthanized.

Today on Stateside, Planned Parenthood withdraws from Title X which funds services for 42,000 patients in Michigan. Plus, new Oakland County County Executive Dave Coulter is the first Democrat in 27 years.

Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below. 

Planned Parenthood announced it will withdraw from the federal Title X program which funds contraception and family planning services for low-income patients.

It was this time five years ago that the city of Toledo placed a city-wide ban of tap water.

Today on Stateside, ten years after thousands of untested rape kits were found in a Detroit police warehouse, we talk to the prosecutor who’s been working though those cases. Plus, a conversation about climate change and its effect on Michigan agriculture.

Climate change is affecting the world in a lot of ways. The planet is warming, more rain is falling. There are colder winters, and warmer summers. And all of this is having a profound effect on agriculture.

The constant barrage of news about climate change and drinking water contamination and pollution in the Great Lakes can feel overwhelming. If you care, it’s hard to know what to do or where to start.

Stateside is kicking off a new ongoing series that features ordinary people who decided to do something about it. They identified a problem – no matter how big or small – and chose to act. 

Today on Stateside, how Michigan farmers are dealing with devastating crop losses and the impacts of a trade war. Plus, many in Michigan's immigrant communities were not surprised by a new Trump administration rule that denies green cards to immigrants who have used, or are likely to use, public benefits.

Climate change doesn’t just hurt our environment. It affects food production, insect outbreaks, precipitation. And, as health professionals are starting to see, it’s causing problems for human health.

Today on Stateside, Samuel Stanley Jr. officially took his place as Michigan State University's 21st president earlier this month. We talk to Stanley about his goals and plans for his first year in office. Plus, we talk about the ways climate change is already impacting human health in Michigan. 

On August 1, Samuel Stanley Jr. officially became Michigan State University's 21st president. Stanley is a medical doctor and a former president at Stony Brook University in New York.

He is the first permanent leader at the university since former President Lou Anna Simon resigned at the height of the Larry Nassar scandal. After her resignation, former Michigan Governor John Engler, and then MSU Dean Satish Udpa, served as interim presidents.

Swartz Creek Community Schools in Genesee County has come up with a creative way to tackle student hunger during the summer: a bus-turned-food truck called the “Dragon Diner.”

Like many other school districts across Michigan, Swartz Creek offers students lunch and breakfast in various school buildings throughout the summer.

But as the district’s Food Service Director Micheal Wensel came to realize, kids whose families don’t have access to transportation can’t take advantage of those meals.

Eighty-one summers ago, folklorist Alan Lomax visited Michigan as part of a 10-year project collecting American folk music for The Library of Congress. The recordings feature the songs of lumberjacks, iron miners, and Great Lakes sailors, among others.

After three months, Lomax left the state in his 1935 Plymouth, which was filled to the brim with a collection of 250 instantaneous discs and eight reels of film documenting life in Michigan. 

Today on Stateside, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson comments on how an increase in the number of absentee ballots could impact elections without a change in state law. Plus, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is building a manufacturing center in an effort to diversify the tribe's economic ventures.

Today on Stateside, the use of long-term, uncertified substitute teachers has increased tenfold in the past five years. We talk to the Bridge Magazine reporter who broke this story about what it means for the state's neediest students. Plus, documents from a federal court case offer a rare look at how dark money influences Lansing lawmakers.