Today on Stateside, a Detroit-based company tries to mediate the “plague” of tax foreclosures in the city of Detroit. Plus, we hear from a judge who might have made a legal path for LGBTQ people to go to court for discrimination even though there are no civil rights protections for them in Michigan.
Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
Who decides which tax foreclosed houses go to auction in Wayne County? Ultimately, just one man.
- What policies determine the fate of home foreclosures in Wayne County? It’s a pretty simple question. It turns out the answer is not so simple. Jerry Paffendorf, CEO of Loveland Technologies, thinks Wayne County’s heavy reliance on late tax payments to balance its previously unbalanced budget is creating a push to foreclose rather than keep people in their homes. Paffendorf and Detroit Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer join us to discuss battling the “plague” of tax foreclosures in the county.
Political roundup: As lawsuits linger, House Dems vote to compensate victims wrongly accused of unemployment fraud
- Democrats in Michigan House of Representatives announced legislation this week to reimburse those wrongly accused of fraud by the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency. The agency used an automated system to detect fraud, which ended up wrongly accusing tens of thousands of people of unemployment fraud.
- We discuss with this week’s political commentators. John Sellek is CEO of Harbor Strategic and TJ Bucholz is president of Vanguard Public Affairs.
Detroit judge honored for work on case with transgender woman
- Last summer in Detroit, a man attacked a transgender woman at a gas station, shooting her in the shoulder. There were several charges filed against the man including “ethnic intimidation” based on gender. That ruling may have made a legal path for LGBTQ people to go to court for discrimination, even though there are no civil rights protections for them in Michigan.
- The judge who allowed that classification is Bill McConico. He joins Stateside to discuss his recognition by the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Michigan, which recently gave him the group’s Catalyst Award.
Cheers! The first Last Word and the Final Ward
- Stateside's Friday host Lester Graham and mixologist Tammy Coxen revisit the first cocktail they ever made on Cheers! in honor of their jointly-authored book Cheers to Michigan: A Celebration of Cocktail Culture and Craft Distillers.
- A book launch will be held at The Last Word in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, September 10 from 6:00-9:00pm.
How the Detroit riverfront went from industrial eyesore to public gathering space
- It wasn’t all that long ago that Detroit’s riverfront was little more than aging industry. Today, the Detroit River Walk is an always improving and welcoming connection between the city and the river that bears its name. A new book chronicles the history of the Detroit River, its relationship to the city, and those recent changes.
- Sitting next to a tributary of the Detroit River, author John Hartig and Lester Graham discussed Hartig's new book Waterfront Porch: Reclaiming Detroit’s Industrial Waterfront As a Gathering Place for All.
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