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Stateside: Child migrant welfare; business leaders press for new roads; a Tuskegee Airman reflects

A virtual imagining of "Detroit Square's" redesign of Midtown.
Courtesy of Detroit Square
The project "Detroit Square" envisions a complete redesign of an 83-acre swath of Detroit's Midtown.

Today on Stateside, what are living conditions like for undocumented children who are brought to Michigan from migrant detention centers at the southern border? Plus, a conversation with one of the last surviving members of World War Two’s famous Tuskegee Airmen military unit. 

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

Migrant children in Michigan have different experience than those at the border

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Stateside’s conversation with Susan Reed

  • There’s been a flood of disturbing reports about conditions faced by people — particularly children — at migrant detention centers on our southern border. A number of those undocumented children have been brought to Michigan. Susan Reed is managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. She tells us about the path that migrant children take after arriving in Michigan.

“Failure is not an option” with road funding, say MI business leaders

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Stateside’s conversation with Sandy Baruah

  • The Detroit Regional Chamber, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Business Leaders for Michigan, and other business coalitions have challenged lawmakers to come up with a plan to fix and fund our crumbling roads, even as lawmakers head off on their summer vacation. Sandy Baruah is the president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber. He explains what prompted these organizations to band together and why it's important to sort out funding for infrastructure sooner rather than later. 

Finding the middle road between freedom and safety for older drivers

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Click above to hear Interlochen Public Radio’s Max Johnston’s reporting

  • There are more than a million drivers over the age of 65 in Michigan and statistically, they’re pretty safe on the road. But as Interlochen Public Radio’s Max Johnston reports, a county in northern Michigan has one of the highest car accident rates for senior citizens.

Bold plan wins international design competition to reimagine cultural heart of Detroit

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Stateside’s conversation with Anya Sirota and Harley Etienne

  • Detroit’s Midtown, widely considered to be the cultural heart of the city, is destined for a makeover. A project called “Detroit Square” will be re-shaping an 83-acre swath of Midtown after winning an international design competition put on by the Detroit Institute of Arts and Midtown Detroit, Inc. Anya Sirota is a design principal of the Detroit-based studio Akoaki as well as an associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. Harley Etienne is an urban planner who also teaches at the University of Michigan. They break down some of the changes their project envisions for Midtown and what it will take to make that vision a reality.

Tuskegee Airman discusses service and discrimination in new book

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Stateside’s conversation with Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart, Jr

  • Ninety-four-year-old retired Lt. Colonel Harry T. Stewart, Jr. of Bloomfield Hills is one of just 11 living members of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black military unit that flew combat missions during World War II. His life is the subject of a book co-written by aviation writer Philip Handleman called “Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of World War II.”Stewart joined Stateside to talk about his experience training to become a pilot in Alabama under Jim Crow, his time serving with The Red Tails in Italy, and where life took him after returning home from war.

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