Stateside: Trump’s auto agenda; latest on UAW strike; 14-year-old Detroit chess champion

Today on Stateside, what impact does the impeachment inquiry into President Trump have on the auto industry? Plus, a new memoir about the price people pay when they are displaced from their true roots, generation after generation.

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

GM and UAW talks ramp up, but temp worker pay likely to remain a sticking point

• General Motors today told nearly 50,000 striking UAW members that it will continue paying for their health care. That includes medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage. That's a big reversal from last week, when the automaker informed the union it would have to pick up those costs. The announcement comes amidst a quickened pace of bargaining. We talk to Michigan Radio’s Tracy Samilton about the signs of movement towards a possible deal.

Howes: Trump’s trade and auto agenda halted by impeachment inquiry

• The nation’s attention has been consumed by the first impeachment inquiry in 21 years. The ripple effect of that development is impacting trade talks and the auto industry. Detroit News business columnist Daniel Howes explains how impeachment is clouding the automotive agenda and what could happen if Congress fails to move on legislation that directly affects automakers. 

Trials and tribulations of court-appointed attorneys in Michigan

• Court-appointed attorneys defend people who can't pay for a lawyer of their own. But for a long time, the state didn't really give those attorneys a fair shot to defend their clients. The ACLU says that means convictions and harsher sentences that could have been avoided. Interlochen Public Radio's Max Johnston reports that now, more funding and training for those lawyers is aiming to balance the scales. 
• This segment originally aired on Points North, a new weekly show from Interlochen Public Radio. Listen to the full show here or wherever you get your podcasts.

In new memoir, poet Shonda Buchanan writes about multiracial identify, impact of family violence

• In her new memoir Black Indian Shonda Buchanan takes readers through her family’s troubled history and her life growing up as a multiracial child with African American, Native American, and European American roots. Buchanan joined Stateside to talk about her heritage, the cost of lost cultural identity, and what she hopes people gain from reading her memoir.
• Shonda Buchanan will be reading from and talking about her memoir Black Indian at Pages Bookshop on Grand River in Detroit on Friday, September 27 at 6:00 PM.
• Support for arts and culture coverage comes in part from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Harvard report suggests judges don’t need to wait on politicians to make courts fairer for poor people

• In Michigan, residents who appear in court face judges who rely on money from defendants to make their budgets work. A final report from Michigan’s Trial Court Funding Commission reached the unanimous conclusion that this funding system - and its inherent conflicts of interest - is quote "broken." The fixes recommended in the report largely rely on lawmakers to sponsor and pass new legislation. But a new report from Harvard Law School suggests courts and judges don't need to wait for politicians to act.
• We talk to Mitali Nagrecha, co-author of the Harvard report, about how, and why, judges should be using their discretion to make sure that courts are fairer for low-income defendants.

State opioid task force needs to be “action oriented,” says state’s chief medical executive

• Michigan, like many other states, is trying to cope with the rising numbers of people addicted to prescription painkillers and other opioids. In 2017,  more than two-thousand people died of opioid overdoses in Michigan. That is much higher than the national rate. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has responded by creating the Michigan Opioids Task Force, chaired by Michigan chief medical executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun. We talk to Khaldun about what is needed to tackle the state’s opioid crisis.

14-year-old Detroiter will represent her hometown at World Junior Chess Championships

• This Saturday, a ninth-grader from Detroit's Cass Tech High School will board a jet for Mumbai, India. Fourteen-year-old Charisse Woods will represent Detroit at the World Youth Chess Championships. We talked to Woods about how she got her start in chess, and her aspirations to become a National Master, a title very few chess players ever earn.

(Subscribe to Stateside on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)