Stateside

On this day 75 ago, the 1943 race riots were coming to an end. Over a three-day period, 34 people were killed in the riots. Nine of them were white and 25 were African-Americans. The event would mark a turning point in the city’s history.

Michael Jackman, senior editor of the Detroit Metro Times, joined Stateside’s Lester Graham to discuss this bloody part of Detroit’s history.

The Pew Research Center recently released a report on midterm voting that found more voters are engaged earlier this election year.

“Compared with recent midterms, more voters say their view of the president – positive or negative – will influence their vote for Congress," the report said. “A 60 percent majority say they consider their midterm vote as essentially a vote either for Donald Trump (26 percent) or against him (34 percent). These are among the highest shares saying their view of the president would be a factor in their vote in any midterm in more than three decades.”

We’re outside the blacksmith shop of Joel Sanderson of Sanderson Iron near Quincy, Michigan. 

There's a steady putt-putt sound that comes from the heart of Sanderson Iron.

Michigan Radio has been hosting a visiting journalist from Russia for the past week and a half. 

Ekaterina Selivanova works for the television channel, Drozhd, in Moscow. 

While in Ann Arbor, Selivanova hit the streets to ask Americans about U.S.-Russia relations. She also offers her own reflections on the two countries' relationship.

They may be tiny, but the honeybee is a powerful force for good in our environment.

Brian Peterson is a fifth-grade teacher in Rochester and the founder of Bees in the D, a nonprofit centered around urban beekeeping.

Peterson spoke with Stateside about how exactly he caught the bug for beekeeping, and how he's spreading his love for the pollinators around Southeast Michigan.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the 1943 race riots in Detroit, and Stateside is exploring this violent episode in the city’s history – and its legacy in present-day downtown and Midtown.

Jamon Jordan, tour leader for the Black Scroll Network History and Tours, joined Stateside to talk about another “major flashpoint” of the riots: Woodward Avenue.

PFAS is a family of chemicals often used in the manufacturing of nonstick and waterproof products. In the past several years, the chemicals have been showing up in high levels in people's drinking water across the state.

News came out Wednesday that a report on the dangers of PFAS exposure had been blocked by officials at the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House. 

Alexis Temkin is a toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group in Washington D.C. She spoke with Stateside on the implications of this new development. 

Summertime in Michigan bring an endless variety of festivals to explore. 

Some, like the National Asparagus Festival in Oceana County, are pretty self-explanatory. Others, however, are a little more quirky.

Take Sticky Buns Days, for example, which is happening this weekend in Grayling at Wellington Farm, USA.

The three top Democratic candidates for Michigan governor debated last night on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.

Shri Thanedar, Gretchen Whitmer, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed had one hour to make their case to voters. One candidate presented himself as an immigrant success story, another as the son of immigrants, and the third as the only one with experience in governing.

Adrian Hemond is a Democratic political strategist with Grassroots Midwest. He sat down with Stateside to discuss what stood out at last night's debate. 

This April, the Trump Administration announced its “zero-tolerance policy” for immigration. It requires every person caught crossing the United State’s southern border be prosecuted in federal criminal court. Since it is against U.S. law for a child to be housed with a parent in a federal prison, children are being separated from the parents who brought them across the border.

Today marks an infamous anniversary in our state. Seventy-five years ago today, a brawl between African-Americans and whites began on the Belle Isle Bridge.

In September, 2016, Detroit native Wendell Brown was having a drink with friends at a bar in China, when a drunk man threw a glass bottle at him, according to witnesses.

Brown, a former Ball State football star, was accused of throwing a punch and knocking the man down. He has denied he hit anyone.

His trial was last July. Brown's family has been waiting on a verdict ever since, but on Tuesday a decision was postponed yet again. 

You probably know the basics of how a typewriter works – even if you have never used one. What you may not have known, however, is that the “father of the typewriter” was William Austin Burt, from Macomb County.

As it happens, this Saturday is National Typewriter Day. Stateside invited Mark Harvey, state archivist with the Michigan History Center, to talk about what led to the birth of the typewriter. 

Young children separated from their families at the border cannot be held in immigration detention centers for more than three days. After 72 hours, the Office of Refugee Resettlement looks to find a shelter or foster care home for the child.  

Feeling anxious or unsettled? You're not alone. An online poll from the American Psychiatric Association finds 39 percent of American adults reported themselves as more anxious today than they were in 2017.

Plenty of us will be enjoying the water and exploring the outdoors in Michigan this summer.

But writer, broadcaster, and attorney Steve Lehto is taking these sorts of adventures to a new level.

This July, Lehto will be taking a 1,200-mile motorized canoe trip from Duluth to Detroit via Sault Ste. Marie. He is retracing the path of famous Michigan explorer Douglass Houghton in the 1830s and 1840s.

Nine girls have made scouting history in Dearborn, becoming the first in Michigan to be recognized as official members of Cub Scout Pack 1112.

This comes after the Boy Scouts of America’s historic decision to allow girls to join the organization and advance through the ranks to Eagle Scout. 

Eight-year-old Carolyn Kuentz is one of those girls. Carolyn and her father Michael Kuentz, who is an assistant Cub Master for Pack 1112 talked with Stateside’s Cynthia Canty about the joys of scouting, and what this change means for the future of the Scouts.

The Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border has generated criticism and condemnation.

The so-called "zero tolerance" policy resulted in the separation of 1,995 children from their families during the six-week period between April 16 and May 31. That number is now estimated to be well over 2,000 children. 

This weekend, current first lady Melania Trump as well as all living former first ladies — both Republican and Democrat — spoke out against the policy. 

Christian leaders across denominations have also publicly condemned the measure. 

Thirty years ago this week, on January 5, 1988, the last train left Michigan Central Station. That moment marked the end of nearly 75 years of Michiganders catching trains at the once-proud station.

Dan Austin, who has written three books about Detroit history and founded HistoricDetroit.org, and Mark Harvey, state archivist from the Michigan History Center, joined Stateside to discuss the station's legacy.

There are more than 3 million Americans living with glaucoma. As Baby Boomers march into their senior years, that number is inevitably going to go up.

Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a medical implant that measures just 1 millimeter, and it's changing the way we treat glaucoma.

The opioid epidemic has been devastating to families and communities across America. For those struggling with addiction, getting clean can be a grueling process, even when they are able to get into a rehab facility. 

Tyler Trowbridge knows that struggle well, which is why he helped design Dirt City Sanctuary. Trowbridge, along with his co-founders Stacy Peck and Wendy Botts, joined Stateside to talk about their efforts to build a new kind of community for recovering addicts. 

The Trump administration's zero-tolerance border policy has meant some 2,000 migrant children have been taken away from their families.

From 2005-2007, Patricia Clark was the poet laureate of Grand Rapids. Now, she's a poet-in-residence and professor in the Department of Writing at Grand Valley State University.

Clark is also the author of five volumes of poetry, including her most recent work titled The Canopy.

Listen above to hear writer John Freeman's review of the collection.  

There is a lot of concern over what to do with the plastic water bottles we use. 

Flint is one community that is grappling with this question in a big way.

In the wake of the water crisis, the city has had to rely heavily on water bottles for safe drinking water.

Ali Rose Van Overbeke, a metro Detroit native, founded Genusee to turn that waste into eyeglasses, manufactured by Flint residents. 

Members of Michigan State University’s governing board are calling for interim president John Engler to resign.

That’s after the Chronicle of Higher Education published an email between Engler and aides in which he said Nassar survivor Rachel Denhollander was likely receiving a “kickback” from lawyers.

Trustees Brian Mosallam and Dianne Byrum released statements saying Engler needs to go.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Yet, in January, Congress and the President extended warrantless surveillance of phone calls, emails, personal Facebook pages and messages, permitting the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on U.S. citizens for six more years.

The Michigan Legislature approved a budget this week right before leaving for the summer recess. 

It would be impossible to go over everything in the budget, so Stateside sat down with two commentators to discuss some notable parts. 

Vicki Barnett is a former Mayor of Farmington Hills and Democratic legislator, and Ken Sikkema is a Senior Policy Fellow with Public Sector Consultants and the former Republican majority leader in the state Senate. 

More than a thousand people filled the grand hall of Burton Manor in Livonia to celebrate Eid, which marks the end of Ramadan. The event was organized by the Muslim Community of the Western Suburbs of Detroit whose director and Imam, Sheikh Ali Suleiman Ali, delivered the prayer.

The end of the holy month also marks the end of daylight fasting. To celebrate the occasion, the faithful hopped in their cars and drove up the street to IHOP, or should we say IHOb?