The Metro

Detroit voters created a board of civilian commissioners in 1974 with the power to investigate their own police department. Eleven members. Its own staff of investigators. Since May, those investigators can no longer pull body camera video themselves.

Victoria Camille represents District Seven on the oversight board. She’s circulating a petition to get that access back. Commissioner Camille spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent about what the police oversight board can actually do to hold cops accountable and whether some of its power has weakened.

Editor's Note: After this segment aired, the motion to limit public comment options to solely in-person attendees was rescinded. 

Since the pandemic, Michigan schools have faced a persistent problem: Students are not showing up enough to class. In Detroit public schools, the chronic absenteeism rate has been higher than the rest of the state’s. Recently, that number has been decreasing. In just one school year, chronic absenteeism dropped 10 percentage points. Even in comparison with other high-poverty school districts, a recent report shows Detroit public schools have been the most effective in the state at boosting attendance rates.

Jeremy Singer is an assistant professor of education policy and leadership at University of Michigan-Flint, and does research with Wayne State. He helped write that report, and spoke about it with The Metro's Robyn Vincent. 

What nobody fully agrees on is why. Andy Arena spent 24 years in the FBI and ran its Detroit division. He now leads the Detroit Crime Commission. He spoke with host Robyn Vincent about why violent crime is declining — and how to continue the trend. 

Animation fans have long awaited the release of "Coyote vs Acme."

The Looney Tunes film blends live-acting and animation into a movie that sees the character, Wile E Coyote, in a legal battle with Acme after the Acme products the Coyote uses to catch Roadrunner keep failing.

The project was finished, but it was shelved by Warner Brothers in 2023 for a tax write off. After fans pushed for the release, "Coyote vs. Acme" is now in theaters.

And the film has some local ties.

Detroiter Bennie Taylor plays a character role in "Coyote Vs Acme." Since 2020, he's played various character roles and continues to see his screentime grow.

In 2026, Taylor was featured in the film "Buddy," starring Keegan-Michael Key, a Michigan native, Patton Oswalt and Delaney Quinn.

Taylor spoke with The Metro's Tia Graham about his career, Detroit and the future.

The Detroit Institute of Arts hosted a screening of the documentary ‘Aftershock’ to kick off the series.

The film follows stories of loss, grief and advocacy for Black and Brown mothers who have died from pregnancy-related complications. 

Omari Maynard is a Brooklyn-based artist, educator, and advocate. Maynard is featured in Aftershock. Audiences follow along as Omari reshapes his life after the death of his partner, Shamony Gibson.

Maynard created portraits of remembrance for Black and Brown women lost to a lack of support and resources in the maternal health system. 

One portrait turned into dozens. This spring the portraits were on display in Washington D.C. in front of 50 congressional offices, giving a name, face and story to alarming statistics. 

Alongside the portrait series in Her Honor, Maynard is the co-founder of the Ariah Foundation. 

Danielle Atkinson is the founding executive director of Mothering Justice. Mothering Justice is a grassroots advocacy organization. It empowers mothers, particularly mothers of color, to address the critical issues that impact their families and communities. 

Omari and Danielle joined The Metro to talk more about In Her Honor and Aftershock. 

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed ran the health departments of both Detroit and Wayne County. Three weeks ago, he won a U.S. Senate primary by roughly 15,000 votes statewide, and lost Detroit by nearly 2-1.

Seven miles away in Dearborn and Hamtramck, he took 78 and 82%, respectively. In Detroit, fewer people voted in this primary than in 2016. So the question in front of him now isn’t only whether Detroit residents will vote for him — it’s whether Detroit residents will turn out to vote.

Bishop James Williams is founder and senior pastor of Spirit and Truth Christian Ministries, and second vice president of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity. That group supported Dr. El-Sayed during the primary. He joined host Robyn Vincent to speak about what his congregants make of the U.S. Senate race, and how their political preferences have been shifting.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.  All patrons must be 21+ to enter the venue.  Tickets are available online at WDET.org/events.

Three weeks ago, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary. Within hours, a sitting U.S. Senator called him a terrorist. A sitting congresswoman called every Muslim holding public office in America “a Trojan horse.” Last year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) logged over 8,600 complaints nationwide, more than in any year since the group started counting in 1996. In Michigan, the chapter recorded nearly 500 — also a record, up 25% from the year before.

Amy Doukoure is the Lead Staff Attorney for CAIR-Michigan, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting anti-Muslim hate locally. She spoke with host Robyn Vincent about why anti-Muslim hate is rising, and what can be done to stop it.

On one side, the Inflation Reduction Act and Chips and Science Act helped distribute clean energy across the country. Those policies dropped solar prices — 90% over the last decade. Battery storage costs fell by the same amount from 2010 to 2020.

But the Green New Deal never passed, and many Republicans in Michigan and across the U.S. are against a clean energy transition.President Donald Trump has consistently said climate change isn’t real and the world continues to warm at a rapid clip.

Jay Inslee has been at the center of the climate movement. He was governor of Washington for three terms, and a presidential candidate in 2020 when he pushed Democrats to take climate change more seriously. What does he make of our climate politics today? And where should the climate movement go next? The Metro’s Sam Corey recently spoke with Inslee when he was in town stumping for Jocelyn Benson in her bid for governor.

A few notes about this conversation: Inslee mentioned a Washington ballot measure on climate that won 62% of the vote. That was a 2024 vote on whether to scrap the state's climate program — the one that makes big polluters pay for what they emit. Voters chose to keep it. 

He also cited a Washington vote on electric school buses. That wasn't a ballot measure — it was a bill, passed by the Legislature in 2024.

He said President Trump's White House construction and renovation projects will cost $800 million. According to Reuters, those projects are now more than $900 million.

Inslee said that 80% of rural voters supported a clean energy ballot initiative in Washington. We could not verify that.

Oakland County saw a 37% decrease in overdose deaths from 2023 to 2024. Part of the reason for that success is owed to the Alliance of Coalitions for Healthy Communities. The alliance launched in 2003 with support of Oakland Counties Office of Substance Abuse Services.

Jonathon Maxgay is an overdose prevention specialist with the Alliance of Coalitions for Healthy Communities.

Maxgay joined The Metro to talk more about the 25th International Overdose Awareness Day and how he’s personally been impacted by substance abuse. 

The Natural Resource Commission also approved an 'earn a buck' pilot program in five Lower Peninsula counties that will allow hunters who have harvested a doe to purchase an additional antlered deer tag. Those counties are Hillsdale, Kalamazoo, Barry, Ingham and Lapeer.

Kevin Vistisen, host of the Deer Hunter Podcast, and Brent Rudolph, specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, spoke with The Metro's Owen Armentrout about the "One Buck Rule" and the end of rifle limitations in the state.

The Paint the Park Mural and Art Festival returns to Allen Park, in partnership with the Downtown Development Authority and The Mural People. It's free and open to the public Aug. 22-23.

Eight muralists will create large-scale public artworks throughout the city, showcasing the vibrancy of the community. There will also be more than 50 artist and maker booths, and demonstrations.

Plus, Slow Roll Detroit’s first Downriver ride and a mural bike tour will be led by founder Jason Hall on Saturday morning.

Jason Hall and Dan Armnad, co-founder and co-owner of The Mural People, joined Tia Graham to talk more about the festival and the Downriver communities.

In the days after El-Sayed's win, anti-Muslim hate targeting him online rose twenty-fold, according to the Center for the Study of Organized Hate. Researchers who track this say the language itself has shifted: from calling Muslims a terror threat, to calling them a threat to civilization.

Last night, that rhetoric arrived in Dearborn. Self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang and Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell came to the city with a promised pig roast, timed to the city council meeting.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud has been answering this with something other than anger. Host Robyn Vincent spoke with him about what that message is, and how he's working to keep Dearborn residents safe.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge includes a mile and a half of cable and steel stretching across the Detroit River. The architect calls it a work of public art. It can be seen from around the city. On the American side sits Delray and parts of Southwest Detroit — neighborhoods that have long sat in the shadow of heavy industry. So we want to know: When a billion dollar project lands on a neighborhood that spent decades being overlooked — can it actually leave the people who live there better off?

Paul Draus is a sociologist at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He spoke about this with host Robyn Vincent.

This has been a hard moment for many Jewish people. Antisemitism has been on the rise, and Americans' views of Israel are now mostly negative. Those are big changes. And they’re translating into political shifts. It's unknown know how a majority of liberal Jewish residents voted during the Democratic Senate Primary. But  a lot of older Jews are unsure of how to vote now that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee.

Andy Levin organized for unions and served as president of his synagogue before running for office. Levin won his father's seat in 2018 and held it for four years before edistricting put him in a primary against Congresswoman Haley Stevens. A super PAC tied to AIPAC spent more than $4 million to beat him, and it worked.

Levin spoke with host Robyn Vincent about why he's supporting El-Sayed, and why many Jewish Metro Detroiters are struggling in this political moment.

He joined WDET in January of 1992, when he walked into this building as an intern and — apart from one year away at Michigan Radio — never left. He’s run the WDET newsroom since 2007. Rosa Parks; Aretha Franklin; Kwame Kilpatrick; a bankruptcy, and a city working to rebuild. Through it all, he was in the room, or he led someone who was.

He also spent those years mentoring generations of Detroit journalists who credit him with their entry into media, and created the Detroit Evening Report so that Detroiters of color would hear their own city in their own voices

On his last day at WDET, he joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to look at how the city changed over his three decades in journalism, and what he learned along the way.

Some customers reach Coriander Kitchen and Farm by boat — down a canal in Detroit's Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood, past backyards and boathouses.

Nearly every parcel in that neighborhood sits inside a federal flood hazard area. The city has $20 million to change that, and closing the canals is one option on the table. Residents beat back a version of the same idea in 2022. This summer, more than 200 of them took boats onto the water in protest.

Chef Alison Heeres and Traci Rubin of the Jefferson Chalmers WATER Project talk with Robyn Vincent about what the canals mean to the neighborhood, who pays when a seawall fails, and what it would take to keep the water open. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org

It’s said that all politics is local. But these days, that doesn’t appear to be so true. Instead, a lot of it is national because that’s where the drama is — much of it at the hands of President Donald Trump. The Republicans who disagree with the president are more likely to lose during an election year. That’s why Trump’s endorsements for Senate candidate Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James matter so much.

Dennis Darnoi is the founder of Densar Consulting, based in Farmington. He spoke with host Robyn Vincent about the Republicans advancing to the general election in both the Senate and governor’s race.

When looking for a name for her boutique, owner Rachel Lutz drew from Detroit history, giving a nod to art collector Charles Lang Freer. Now the shop has evolved, making a name for itself with careful curation, styling expertise and intimate knowledge of the stories behind the pieces sold. The New York Times recently included The Peacock Room in a list of 25 favorite stores.

Rachel Lutz joins the show to talk about what's behind the success of her store and what lays ahead.