The Metro

A new coalition wants to curb the influence of corporate money in Michigan politics and unveil the source of political donations. “Michiganders for Money out of Politics” intends to create a ballot proposal to force state-level “dark money” advertisers to disclose their donors. The group plans to take its language to the state board of canvassers for approval this month.

Sean McBrearty is the vice chair of “Michiganders for Money out of Politics” and the Michigan Director for Clean Water Action. He joined the Metro to discuss the initiative. 

An annual showcase of music, dance and culture from across the African diaspora is coming to the Motor City. The AfroFuture music festival will be in Detroit on August 16th and 17th with events planned throughout the week leading up to it. 

The festival's Director of Operations, Akosua Ayim, joined the Metro to explain why they elected to host this year's event in Detroit. The festival’s t-shirt design contest winner, Rohna Battle Woodger, also joined to discuss her experience training at Pensole Lewis College.

Some emerging research suggests wildfire smoke traveling long distances chemically changes and could become even more harmful.

Pulmonary specialist Dr. Erika Moseson has been closely following the issue of wildfire smoke and lung health. She hosts the podcast “Air Health, Our Health,” where she breaks down how things like wildfire smoke  — and how climate change, which is intensifying those fires — affect our health.

Elena Durnbaugh and Nick Smith cover the State House and Senate, respectively. They joined the Metro to explain how dysfunctional lawmaking in Lansing is right now. They co-reported the story, “House, Senate not taking up each other's bills amid low number of public acts.”

Corazon was selected by Jeff Milo, the host of MI Local on WDET. She will perform alongside three other artists at Sounds Like Detroit LIVE at Batch Brewing on August 14, 2025. Tickets are $25 and support WDET.

She joined Metro’s Tia Graham to talk more about her songwriting and career.

60 years after the Voting Rights Act was passed, the Jackson Home, a civil rights movement landmark, is coming to The Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI.

The Henry Ford in Dearborn —- which includes the Museum of Innovation and Greenfield Village, acquired the Jackson house in 2023. It was owned by Dr. Sullivan Jackson and Mrs. Ritchie Jean Sherrod Jackson and was the site of organizing for the Selma to Montgomery Marches that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Detroit Public Library is hosting a presentation by Amber Mitchell, Curator of Black History at The Henry Ford. She will discuss the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act being signed into law and the role the Jackson Home played in the Selma to Montgomery Marches. The discussion will be at the Main Branch of the Detroit Public Library, 6 p.m., Wednesday, August 6.

Guest: Amber Mitchell, Curator of Black History at The Henry Ford

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Voter accessibility has also been a question. During the 2021 election, disability advocates filed an ADA complaint saying key voting information, like where and how to vote, was inaccessible online for users of screen readers, affecting thousands of Detroiters. And, some polling locations across metro Detroit remain inaccessible to voters with disabilities.

Detroit’s top election official, City Clerk Janice Winfrey, joined Robyn Vincent to discuss.

The Metro has spoken with all of the candidates running for mayor. You can find those conversations in the podcast feed, or at WDET.org/voterguide2025.

Ahead of Tuesday's primary, WDET news director Jerome Vaughn joined the Metro to tell us more about what WDET reporters have been hearing from residents.

Detroit's mayoral primary is Tuesday, August 5, 2025. The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in November.

Follow WDET election coverage at WDET.org/voterguide2025

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

But there are other races in Detroit that deserve attention. 22 candidates are competing in the Detroit City Council primary races. Those seats matter. The people who win those positions are the city’s legislators. They decide what ordinances get passed, what norms are established, and which ones aren’t. Bridge Detroit has been hosting town halls in every Detroit district leading up to Tuesday’s primary election. Two people have been leading those town halls.

Bryce Huffman is the Engagement Editor for Bridge Detroit. He, along with Malachi Barrett, a reporter for Bridge Detroit, are on The Metro this morning to give us more.

Samuel Nalangira is an artist who has honed his artistic craft and expresses it through whatever form he chooses. Samuel is a singer, a musician, a dancer and choreographer from Uganda. He happens to be one of the four musicians selected for the Sounds Like Detroit showcase in just a couple of weeks. WDET is hosting a showcase for their Detroit version of NPR’s Tiny Desk.

Part of feeling at home is the simpler things, like food—the taste of home. Eating together as a family or with certain dishes your parents grew up making. The Arab American National Museum in East Dearborn has been building up a taste of home on the building’s rooftop.

The Al-Hadiqa Heritage Garden at the museum is hosting events like poetry readings and concerts. The next one is August 8, and events run through October 3, including a performance by Kasan Belgrave. Dean Nasreddine is a curatorial specialist at the Arab American National Museum.

That’s what happened in Traverse City, where this weekend, a man attacked 11 random Walmart shoppers. According to his family, he had suffered for decades from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and he “fell through the cracks” of the system again.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, four people died after a shooter opened fire in an office building housing NFL offices. The gunman pleaded grievances in a note tied to suspected brain injuries and noted a mental health history.

These incidents remind us why reforming the system—and the people who interact with it—matters.

In Wayne County, nearly half of the people in jail are medicated for severe mental illness. And 911 received over 15,000 mental health calls last year alone.

Over the past decade, a coalition of groups has been working to change how we respond to things like mental health crises in Wayne County. It’s having an impact.

Since 2016, jail bookings in Wayne County dropped more than 50%.

Police now receive specialized training, social workers ride alongside officers, and mobile crisis teams sometimes respond without law enforcement.

At the center of this transformation is Dr. Sheryl Kubiak. She’s the founding director of the Center for Behavioral Health and Justice at Wayne State University and dean of Wayne State’s School of Social Work. Her team has led pilot programs, built shared data systems, and worked to break down silos.

She joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to share what’s working, what still needs to change, and how communities can respond before crisis turns to catastrophe.

Michigan’s Idlewild is the “Black Eden,” and it’s coming back. Long ago, Black people weren’t allowed to be in these beautiful and rich spaces during the summer. So they created their own Nantucket, Oak Bluffs, Sag Harbor, and many more hidden gems.

That’s what the people who spent their childhood summers there might say if you asked about the efforts being made to redevelop it. Idlewild is an unincorporated community that was established in 1912. The town was known as a safe haven for Black Americans who had few vacationing options and for Black entertainers who were barred from performing at white-only venues.

It was eventually dubbed “The Black Eden,” and well-known entertainers like Louis Armstrong, Della Reese, and Aretha Franklin spent their time at the resort. But after integration, fewer people visited Idlewild, and the community fell on hard times. Today, there are efforts to reinvest in the area.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation placed one of the resort’s hotels, the Hotel Casa Blanca, on this year’s list of 11 most endangered historic locations. Local leaders are working to develop the resort — people like Carmen and Kyle Grier.

They both grew up in Idlewild as kids. Last year, they opened the TEEM Center, a nonprofit that provides life skills for families in Idlewild who need it. The acronym stands for teaching, educating, equipping, and mentoring.

Today on The Metro, we talked to them about their time growing up in Idlewild, how they reconnected years later, and their plans for the TEEM Center and the people of Idlewild. We started by discussing their upbringing. Carmen’s family moved around a lot, and when her father got an opportunity to work in Michigan, he took it.

Right now, Michigan kids are struggling with something fundamental — reading. Over the last 20 years, the state dropped from 30th to 44th in 4th-grade reading scores. Last year, only 25 percent of fourth graders were considered proficient in reading.

What can Michigan do about this? Some suggest we should be looking to Mississippi, because that state has dramatically improved its math and reading scores for 4th graders, now ranking in the top 20 after it was at the bottom a decade ago. But Mississippi isn’t flush with cash — it’s America’s poorest state. So how did they do it? And what does Michigan need to do to change its rankings?

To discuss all that, we have Adrea Truckenmiller on The Metro today, an associate professor of special education at Michigan State University.

This summer is tracking to be the hottest on record… but it could be among the coolest summers we have for the rest of our lives. That’s the takeaway of a recent article from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit made up of climate scientists founded at MIT in 1969. Scientists have warned of global warming for decades now, and the need for more urgent action. That’s because avoiding the worst effects of manmade climate change will require cooperation on a global scale.

But a large paradigm shift must involve city governments and local power players too. Detroit’s primary election for mayor and city council is this coming Tuesday, August 5, and whoever takes the reins as Detroit’s next mayor will be in a unique position to get Detroit ready for the climate that has already changed significantly.

Ellen Vial is the Detroit Program Manager for the Michigan Environmental Council. The council is a coalition of organizations that have created a thorough, 48-page environmental voter guide, and Ellen is on The Metro this morning to discuss the depths of our climate crisis and what Detroiters can do about it.

Universities have been cracking down on pro-Palestine student protestors. In April, the University of Michigan fired a full-time employee, and suspended four people from campus jobs for participating in pro-Palestine protests last year.

In Detroit, a number of students are pushing back against university charges. In June, a group filed a lawsuit against Wayne State University,  claiming the school violated the group’s constitutional right to protest in 2024. 

How should universities treat student protestors? And, what are the principles they should be defending? Frederick Lawrence is the Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Society and a Distinguished Lecturer at Georgetown Law school. He’s also the former president of Brandeis University and regularly consults university presidents.

Lawrence spoke with The Metro's Sam Corey to discuss how Universities should be handling current and future protests.

One of the best ways to learn what really happens in these meetings is to attend and take good notes. That’s exactly what the Detroit Documenters do every week. The Metro’s Jack Filbrandt spoke with Lynelle Herndon and AJ Johnson from the Detroit Documenters to break down the difference between boards and committees in Detroit.

In May 2024, students at the University of Michigan protested outside the campus art museum. They chanted, linked arms, and called on the university to divest from Israel. Some video clips reviewed by The Metro show campus cops escalating things, pushing their bikes and barricades into protesters. In another clip, an officer pepper-sprays students as they chant and raise their fists. That same month, police violently raided and broke up an encampment at the university, spraying protesters with what students say was a mix of pepper gas and tear gas.

Nearly one year later, the university began disciplining those involved. Some students were fired from campus jobs. Others were permanently banned from future university employment. One recent graduate was let go from a research position for a protest she attended as a student.

Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped all criminal charges she had been pursuing against students amid mounting political pressure and the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

But the University of Michigan continued its internal punishments, labeling peaceful protests as “violence.”

The university also hired outside consultants and private security to surveil student activists, following them on and off campus. 

After that revelation came to light, thanks to reporting by Tom Perkins in The Guardian, the university announced it was ending its undercover surveillance program. 

Now, several lawsuits say the university retaliated against students not for breaking rules, but for what they believe.

Liz Jacob, staff attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, represents the students and alumni suing the University of Michigan. She joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss the lawsuits and the broader implications for free speech on campuses everywhere.

The University of Michigan has yet to respond to The Metro’s request for comment.

It’s been almost two years since Hamas’ attack on Israel, and each day, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is getting worse. The latest concern is starvation. On Sunday, the United Nations issued a grim statement on the situation: “The entire population of over two million people in Gaza is severely food insecure. One out of every three people has not eaten for days. And 80 per cent of all reported deaths by starvation are children.”

The number of people killed trying to get food in Gaza continues to grow. Since May, NPR has reported that over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces when trying to get food, often near aid sites run by an American contractor. 

Over 57,000 civilians and combatants have been killed in Gaza since the war started, October 7, 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry. There are still Israeli and non-Israeli captives being held by Hamas in that territory.

One word being used to describe the horror unfolding in Gaza is “genocide.” For a long time, Omer Bartov, a Jewish-Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, was averse to using the word to describe what’s happening against Palestinians.

But his views changed in 2024 when he says Israel’s tactics began to satisfy the United Nations definition of genocide. He joined The Metro to explain his thinking on how Israel’s role in the war constitutes genocide

This year, Sounds from the Park took the tunes to Clark Park and will make its way to Eliza Howell Park on August 2nd. Helping enrich the Sidewalk Detroit festival's 10-year celebration.

Today on The Metro to tell us more about his new initiative, we had Marcus Elliot. He is an instructor of jazz saxophone at Wayne State University and the director of the Creative Arts Orchestra at the University of Michigan.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

According to the National Center for Employee Ownership, more than 6,000 businesses across the country are employee-owned. In Michigan, there are two large employee-owned companies  (McNaughton-McKay Electric Company and Challenge Manufacturing Company).

Roy Messing wants to see that number grow. He’s the Executive Director of the Michigan Center for Employee Ownership. Earlier this month, the state announced a $500,000 pilot program aimed at expanding employee ownership in Michigan. The Michigan Center for Employee Ownership will work with the state labor department to help more businesses transition to employee ownership