Registered voters not casting a vote is a problem in the city, one that seems to be bigger here than in other Midwest cities. 

In Central Ohio’s Franklin County, the 2024 presidential election turnout was 66%. In Milwaukee, it was 85%. In Chicago, it was about 68% — and that’s the lowest it’s been in 80 years. But in Detroit, during the same election year, it was just 47%. 

Mara Ostfeld is the research director at the Center for Racial Justice and a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She joined The Metro on Wednesday to share insights into why some Detroit residents don’t vote, and how to increase voter turnout. 

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Health care in Michigan is about to get more expensive.

According to a recent report from the health policy research group KFF, insurers offering plans through the Affordable Care Act will increase premiums by 15% next year, with some even proposing 20% hikes. Medicaid is set for $1.2 trillion in national cuts, including work mandates and higher fees.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also announced last week that she joined a multi-state coalition lawsuit challenging a Trump administration rule that would “create significant barriers to obtaining health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act.”

So, what does all this mean for you and your family’s health care costs?

Thomas Buchmueller, a health economist at the University of Michigan, joined The Metro on Tuesday to break down what’s changing, who will feel it first, and what Michigan can do to soften the blow.

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It’s no secret Detroit is at a turning point. Mayor Mike Duggan is on his way out. And soon, a new group of city leaders will enter the fray.

But will these leaders and their appointees truly represent the needs of everyday Detroiters?

That’s exactly what the Detroit City Appointments Project is working on. It’s trying to recruit and vet residents who want to serve under Detroit’s next mayor.

The project, led by longtime organizer Maurice Weeks, is focused on finding qualified people. It’s also about finding leaders committed to fairness, equity and accountability to Detroit’s neighborhoods.

Weeks joined The Metro on Monday to talk about the project, what’s at stake for Detroiters, and how roles in local government can be transformational for the city.

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Here on The Metro, we’ve been talking to Detroit’s mayoral candidates about how they would lead if elected, and what they would prioritize as the city’s next mayor.

Outlier Media Civic Life Reporter Briana Rice has also been covering the Detroit mayoral race. She recently customized a fun tool for Outlier called the Meet Your Mayor Quiz to help Detroit voters compare candidates and discover which individuals align best with their priorities. 

The 21-question quiz matches voters with candidates based on their views about housing, safety and other key issues. Outlier was able to create and localize the quiz thanks to the nonprofit newsroom THE CITY in New York City, which made the code open source for all to use.

Rice joined The Metro to share more about the quiz and how voters are utilizing it.

Take the quiz here.

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In Detroit, the fallout from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s doubling down on aggressive tactics has shaken local communities.

Just last month, a Detroit teen less than four credits from graduation was deported after getting stopped by ICE for a traffic violation.

These are some of the tactics that led over 300 faith leaders and community members to march this week from Corktown to Detroit’s ICE field office. The goal of the demonstration — organized by the advocacy group Strangers No Longer — was to deliver a pastoral letter demanding humane enforcement.

Immigrant rights and environmental justice advocate Odalis Perales is working with Strangers No Longer to break down barriers between faith communities, in schools, and among police about the challenges and tension of this moment.

She joined The Metro on Thursday to talk about her progress and respond to ICE’s refusal to engage with the group’s pastoral letter and demands. 

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Affordable housing has been a major issue for many voters in Detroit.

In fact, according to recent University of Michigan surveys, housing affordability is a top priority for residents. In the majority renter city that is Detroit, 60% of those renters are cost-burdened — meaning they spend over 30% of their income on housing costs.

A lack of affordable housing is considered one of the root causes of homelessness. In 2024, a one-night count conducted by the city of Detroit and two local nonprofits showed a 16% increase in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park’s homeless population compared to the year before.

Ted Phillips, executive director for the United Community Housing Coalition, and Nushrat Rahman, economic mobility reporter for the Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit, joined the show to discuss the drivers of and possible solutions to this growing problem.

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Since entering the Detroit mayoral race in December, City Council President Mary Sheffield has become a frontrunner in the race.

According to recent polling, she’s leading the charge in front of Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. and former Detroit Police Chief James Craig.

As the daughter of Rev. Horace Sheffield III — the leader of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations — and the granddaughter of Detroit labor leader Horace Sheffield Jr., Sheffield has been steeped in politics and the Black church for her entire life. She was also the youngest person elected to Detroit City Council when she was just 26 years old. 

Today, the millennial candidate is very social media savvy, often using TikTok and Instagram to connect with city residents. She’s also gained favor from many young people, including big-name Detroit rappers like Sada Baby and Skilla Baby — who both appeared at her annual “Occupy the Corner” events.

But behind Sheffield’s popularity, what does she stand for? She joined The Metro on Wednesday to talk more about the priorities of her campaign and what she’d bring to the table as Detroit’s next mayor.

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Public media began as classroom radio in the 1920s. It was dry, instructional, and pretty boring. Most only thought of news as newspapers or the anchors you see on your parents’ favorite channel every morning.

But it evolved to combine entertainment, education, and lessons in democracy. That evolution helped shape National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service into platforms that elevate untold community stories and give us and our kids the tools to live better lives. NPR and PBS not only tells us the news happening locally and nationally, they give children a safe avenue for early learning.

Josh Shepperd is a historian and author specializing in public media at the University of Colorado Boulder.

He joined The Metro to talk about the history of public media in the United States, and the Trump administration’s current attacks on public broadcasting.

President Donald Trump has asked Congress to pass a rescission package that would claw back funding for foreign aid programs and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The package has already passed the House and now the Senate has until July 18 to approve it.

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Detroit City Council recently approved changes to city ordinances to make the licensing process easier and less cumbersome for small businesses.

The changes, which were unanimously approved by the council, will reduce administrative burdens by cutting redundant licensing requirements that “do not protect health and safety”; allow businesses to renew their business licenses every two years instead of annually; improve the city’s permitting and licensing processes and more.

Hassan Beydoun, group executive of Economic Development for the city of Detroit, joined The Metro on Tuesday to elaborate on what these new resolutions mean for small businesses in Detroit.

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Last week, Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison joined Mayor Mike Duggan and other officials in announcing the launch of a new teen violence prevention plan.

Under the new plan, minors age 15 and under must be with a parent after 10 p.m. The curfew for children ages 16 and 17 is 11 p.m. The plan also calls for increased curfew enforcement, illegal block party enforcement, and higher fines for breaking curfews.

The “crackdown” on curfew violations is in response to recent shooting incidents involving children in the city. But how effective can that be in stopping violent crime, and what else is the city doing to stop violence at the root?

Bettison joined The Metro on Tuesday to discuss the city’s new violence prevention plan and talk about why violence tends to spike during the summer months.

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Today on The Metro, we continue our coverage on the fight over public media funding and what’s at stake for local news and music stations across the country.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) due to alleged bias. Now, in the House Rescissions Act of 2025 — which narrowly passed the House last month — he’s asking Congress to claw back CPB funding that has already been approved.

The Senate Appropriations committee held a hearing on the bill last month, and the Senate will need to vote on the package by July 18.

If passed, local stations — including WDET and the programs you love — would face profound impacts. At WDET, about 6% of our annual budget comes from CPB.

Kelly McBride, senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, serves as NPR’s public editor. She says in her role with NPR, she serves as an independent critic of NPR reporting, engaging with listeners and critiquing public media stations when appropriate.

McBride spoke with Metro co-host Robyn Vincent about how public editors at major media outlets help hold journalists accountable, and how NPR could improve its coverage of federal funding cuts to public media and allegations of bias.

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Each year the Concert of Colors transforms Detroit with sounds from across the globe.

This year the rhythm is beating strongly in Mexicantown, where the festival kicks off on Saturday with a special showcase of Tejano and Latin music. Tejano, or Tex-Mex music, is a soulful blend of borderland storytelling and rhythms rooted in Mexico, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Ray Lozano, executive director of the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation, joined The Metro to talk more about Concert of Colors, Tejano music and the importance of amplifying immigrant voices.

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After decades of steady decline, Detroit’s population is finally growing. Latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Detroit increased its population by 6,800 residents from 2023 to 2024.

And even more people seem to be moving to Detroit’s neighboring suburbs, with many housing investments being made in recent years in the city’s outer suburban ring and nearby “exurbs” like Lyon, Milford and Commerce townships.

Ro Harvard, a realtor with Island Realty — an affiliate of Keller Williams Realty — joined on The Metro on Thursday to shine some light on the inner workings of Detroit’s housing scene, and what types of amenities and priorities draw buyers to certain communities — from school districts and walkability to affordability and property values.

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The United Auto Workers union announced last month it would be endorsing Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. in the Detroit mayoral race, calling him “a longtime advocate for working-class people.”

Kinloch, a senior pastor at Detroit’s Triumph Church, is the only candidate in the mayoral race who has not held an elected position. He is currently battling for second place in the race behind frontrunner Mary Sheffield — who continues to maintain a sizable lead. The top two vote getters in the Aug. 5 primary will face off in the November general election.

In Detroit, a political endorsement from the UAW has always carried considerable weight, but membership is down in recent decades, and there are shifting political views within.

Today on The Metro, UAW Region 1A Director Laura Dickerson joined the show to discuss the endorsement and why it matters.

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Detroit mayoral candidate and City Councilman Fred Durhal III last week announced his strategic plan for improving the city, including cracking down on blight and implementing a more “equitable tax strategy.”

His plan emphasizes the importance of cutting taxes and red tape when necessary, reinvesting in communities and “main streets,” creating more affordable housing and expanding Detroit’s development authority to Midtown, Corktown and to Gratiot, near Eastern Market. Durhal also wants to see more thriving business corridors, more Detroit enterprises and more city residents.

He joined The Metro on Wednesday to expand upon the priorities laid out in his strategic economic plan for the city of Detroit.

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Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is the focus of a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday. 

The publicly-funded nonprofit, which provides funding to PBS, NPR and its affiliates like WDET, would lose $1.1 billion — two years’ worth of funding that has already been approved by Congress — if the bill passed by the House earlier this month gets Senate approval. It would also rescind more than $8 billion in funding for foreign aid programs addressing global public health, international disaster assistance and hunger relief.

That bill passed in the House by a margin of 214 to 212, with four Republicans crossing the aisle to vote against the package. There were also four Democrats and two Republicans who did not vote on the bill at all.

President Donald Trump has already signed an executive order to eliminate CPB funding, claiming all public media is biased, but the Rescissions Act of 2025 would go beyond that, revoking funding already approved by Congress.

Today on The Metro, we break down what it would mean for public media organizations like WDET if the legislation gets Congressional approval.

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Detroit has come a long way since declaring bankruptcy in 2013, but challenges still remain.

Residents are struggling to find affordable housing, Detroit students are not keeping pace with the rest of the state or the nation, and many long-time Detroit residents feel excluded in Detroit’s transformation. So where do we go from here? And who is the right person to lead the city into its next chapter?

Come November, Detroit residents will make that decision when they elect a new mayor. There are nine candidates, plus two write-ins, that believe they are the right person for the job. 

Life-long Detroiter and businessman Jonathan Barlow is among them. He joined The Metro on Tuesday to share why he decided to run for mayor, and what his priority would be if elected. He says the city’s next leader needs to focus on supporting families and legacy Detroiters.

“I’m recreating the family fabric; I want to make Detroit [a] community again, and make sure that we ensure that every home has what it needs to get by,” he said.

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The night skies over Tehran have been flashing with fire since Israeli jets began piercing Iranian airspace. They have been targeting nuclear facilities that Israel insists pose an imminent threat. Hundreds have been killed in Iran and thousands injured. 

Iran has responded by firing missiles into Israel, where at least 24 have been killed.

An American-brokered ceasefire fell apart this morning with reports of Israeli and Iranian airstrikes coming after the announcement. 

President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social Tuesday morning demanded Israel’s compliance: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”

Meanwhile, the world has been watching anxiously. That anxiety grew Saturday when Trump escalated the conflict, deploying American B-2 bombers and launching Tomahawk missiles in an aggressive campaign. The president has openly hinted at regime change. 

Iran responded by striking an American air base in Qatar, home to thousands of U.S. troops. 

Diplomacy now teeters on a knife-edge as fears of broader conflict intensify. These fears are held among many in metro Detroit, especially among the hundreds of thousands of Arab and Middle Eastern residents here. Many have been watching violence and conflict erupt across the region and it brings back painful memories of the wars that forced them to leave their homes and flee to the U.S. in the first place.

Some analysts say this latest move by Israel is an attempt to entirely reshape the Middle East, which is stoking further tension and anxiety among people in the diaspora here.

Fariba Pajooh, an Iranian-American scholar of communication and media studies at Wayne State University, joined The Metro to help us understand this moment. Pajooh spent years working as a journalist in the Middle East covering conflicts. Some of that coverage led to her imprisonment by Iranian authorities. 

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In a nation where supermarkets are filled from floor to ceiling, a single missed phone call can empty a family’s pantry and leave children going to bed hungry.

Investigative journalist and author Tracie McMillan knows this firsthand, both from her own experience with SNAP benefits, or food stamps, and her years reporting on America’s working poor. 

In McMillan’s recent piece for The New York Times, we meet Jocelyn Walker, a mother and entrepreneur from metro Detroit who is struggling to make ends meet and is stuck in this bureaucratic maze.  

McMillan joined The Metro to discuss why hunger remains a persistent reality in America today.

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