Offbeat

The “Detroit Youth Energy Squad,” or D-YES, teaches high school students about energy conservation. The students then visit homes in Detroit and make the homes more energy efficient. As part of our What's Working series, we spoke with Justin Schott, founder of the group.

This weekend “30 Minutes or Less” comes out in theaters. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about it in Grand Rapids this week; a few are hosting movie parties. The pizza place where the main character works in the film, is giving people $5 off their order if they present a movie stub. I admit, I spent some time at work today playing the little internet pizza delivery game on the movie's page.

Therapeutic Riding, Inc., or TRI, uses horseback riding to help children and adults with disabilities.

Jody Scott, the president of TRI, lists cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome and multiple sclerosis as some of the disabilities TRI works with. Scott says, “If there’s some kind of challenge that an individual is facing, they will have an assessment to see if we would be a good fit.”

One of the riders that Scott works with has multiple sclerosis, and benefits physically from riding. Scott says, “[She] is able to, when the horse is moving, tighten up her core muscles so that she can balance correctly. Then she uses these same positions in her wheelchair, actually, to help hold her back up straight, and by sitting up straight it opens up her entire rib cage so she can breathe better.”

Horseback riding also has mental benefits. Scott says, “We have had some children who have never spoken a word, and their first words have been spoken while riding a horse at therapeutic riding.”

A 78-year-old woman says a 6-mile canoe trip down a river in northeast Ohio was a dream come true. That’s despite the fact that she’s afraid of water.

Kay Riffle took her first canoe ride thanks partly to the Second Wind Dreams group. The nonprofit organization works to help grant dreams for seniors.

When you think of a prison, you probably envision an expanse of concrete, metal bars, and tall barbed wire fences. But, on the grounds of the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, there’s also a huge garden. As part of our What's Working series, we speak with Ellen Baron, a horticulture instructor at the prison who teacher inmates how to plant crops. Once the food is grown, it's donated to a local food bank.

Update 1:49 p.m.

A power surge fried some of our equipment this morning. Including a DAT player where streaming wires were plugged in. We pulled the plugs out of the DAT machine, connected the two wires, and Voila! our stream is back up!

7:46 a.m.

Due to technical difficulties, Michigan Radio's live-streaming is currently unavailable. We hope to have the problem, which we believe was caused by last night's thunderstorms, fixed shortly. We are sorry for the inconvenience!

WFUM 91.1 in Flint will go off the air at 10:00 a.m. this morning for repairs. The work that needs to be done is at the level of our antenna that will require us to be off for about two hours.

Imagine watching a place you love—and that your family has loved, for generations—fall into disrepair.

That’s what it’s been like for many Detroit baseball fans, who consider the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues to be sacred ground. That’s the site of the old Tiger Stadium, which was demolished in 2009.

One group of fans decided to do something about that. The only problem: the land isn’t theirs to maintain. And while they may see themselves as being helpful, the city of Detroit sees it differently.