Today on Stateside, Gretchen Whitmer laid out her 2020 agenda at Wednesday's State of the State address. We'll talk to the governor, and lawmakers from both parties, about what comes next. Plus, an investigative report into how law enforcement and a religious group let a suspected child predator go.
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Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
Gov. Whitmer's plan for 2020
- Forty-two minutes was all the time it took Governor Gretchen Whitmer to push back at Republicans on road funding, task the legislature to get real about workplace discrimination, and lay out new agenda items for her second year in office. We spoke with Gov. Whitmer about how she'll turn her plan into action, her plan to issue $3.5 billion in bonds to fund road repairs, and her thoughts on giving the Democratic rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union address next week.
House Dem Leader: $3.5 billion in bonds first step in road fix, but Legislature must find longterm solution
- Governor Whitmer got plenty of applause from Democrats during her speech Wednesday night. But her fellow Democrats haven't always seen eye to eye with her. The legislative majority is close enough that both parties will need to be involved in finding solutions to issues like road funding. We spoke with State Representative Christine Grieg, the House Democratic Leader, about what she thinks of Whitmer’s plan to start fixing roads by issuing $3.5 billion in bonds.
House Speaker Lee Chatfield reacts to Govenor Whitmer's bonding plan
- As Governor Gretchen Whitmer lays out her agenda for 2020, Republicans are also making plans for the year ahead. Whitmer had some firm words in her State of the State address about the road funding dispute with Republicans that drove state government to the brink of a shutdown just months ago. Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield joined us to talk about last night's speech, and where Republicans and the governor might be able to work together in the coming year on Michigan's most urgent problems.
What happens when executive power goes unchecked? The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII offers ominous clues
- January 30 is observed as Fred Korematsu Day in many cities and states around the country. In 1943, Korematsu was one of a trio of men who challenged the internment of Japanese Americans all the way to the Supreme Court. They lost. But that decision was vacated in 1983, with evidence that internment was grounded, not in security concerns, but in deep-seated racism.
- Don Tamaki is one of the attorneys who worked on Fred Korematsu's exoneration. He spoke with Stateside about how unchecked executive power led to the internment of Japanese Americans, and reflected on the lessons Korematsu's experience offers for the country today.
Multiple families accused man "living single for the Lord" of child sexual assault. He's still free.
- A longtime member of a celibate, Christian service organization returned to Michigan after decades of mission work overseas. Soon, two families reported him for sexually abusing their children. He was reported before. Nevertheless, he still got off the hook. Michigan Radio’s Lindsey Smith investigated how both law enforcement and a religious group let a suspected child predator go.
