Today on Stateside, the details of lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections. A woman is suing the agency over allegations that officers at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility used their body cams to record her without consent while she was giving birth and during her postpartum care. According to her attorney, the experience has left her traumatized.
Then, another installment of What The Vote?, a series highlighting Gen Z voters, their priorities, and their concerns leading up to the 2026 Midterms. This week, a Muskegon city commissioner and resident talked about the qualities she hopes to see in a candidate.
Also, a window into the operations at Froehlich's, a beloved bakery in Three Oaks, Michigan. Founder Colleen Froehlich joined us to talk about her new cookbook,The Froehlich's Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Beloved Restaurant and Bakery.
Plus, an off-Broadway play about the Flint Water Crisis makes its way to theatres in Michigan this week. We spoke with the writer and director behind The Poisoner. After the show in Detroit, there will be a talkback with the audience with Michigan Public’s Lindsey Smith and Vince Duffy, who were in Michigan Public's newsroom and closely followed the Flint Water Crisis in 2014.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Zena Issa, criminal justice reporter for Michigan Public
Kiley Jackson, Muskegon city commissioner at-large
Today on Stateside, how Lansing's unhoused community is processing the violent deaths of five unhoused individuals on a trail along the Grand River. Lansing's Police Department is investigating their deaths. We spoke with a reporter covering the story.
Then, a project coordinated by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA) aimed to improve math instruction in elementary schools with below average math scores on standardized tests. Educators and researchers with the Early Mathematics project say the sustained approach had a meaningful impact, but funding for the project dried up this year.
The candidates for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat faced off in their first debate, tackling issues including the cost of living, housing, data centers, and foreign policy. We discussed the major takeaways with Michigan Public Radio Network reporter Russ McNamara. Then, we revisited a conversation about the Native American Education Program Library at Grand Rapids Public Schools, home to more than 3,000 books in 16 languages. Plus, Democratic candidate Will Lawrence joined us to talk about his campaign for Michigan's 7th Congressional District, where he's challenging Republican incumbent Tom Barrett.
Guests on today's show
Russ McNamara, reporter for the Michigan Public Radio Network
Amy Westcott, who led the effort to establish the Native American Education Program Library at Grand Rapids Public Schools
Will Lawrence, Democratic candidate for Michigan's 7th Congressional District
Then, Interlochen Public Radio brought us a story about how Northern Michigan tribes are trying to bring back the Arctic grayling. The freshwater fish species was once abundant in the region’s rivers and streams.
And, state leaders have gone back and forth on the issue of resident IDs, or the ability for anyone living in the state to get a driver's license, regardless of citizenship. Two reporters discussed the history of resident IDs and its connection to local police department's collaboration with immigration enforcement officers.
Plus, we revisited a conversation with Irene Butter, a public health scholar and Holocaust survivor who lived in Ann Arbor. Her experience as a child led to decades of teaching and activism around global human rights. Butter passed away on Friday, Oct. 2.
Finally, we revisited a conversation with Anne Carson in celebration of her recently announced Nobel Prize for Literature.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Jody White, Michigan Supreme Court candidate and real estate broker
Vivian La, climate solutions reporter at Interlochen Public Radio
Kate Furby, senior environment reporter at Michigan Public
Adam Yahya Rayes, data reporter at Michigan Public
Koby Levin, senior reporter at Outlier Media
Irene Butter, retired public health scholar and human rights activist
Today on Stateside, a conversation with Michigan Supreme Court candidate Thomas W. Howe. Howe is a Fenton resident who was nominated by the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan. He is one of six candidates running for the two seats on the Michigan State Supreme Court this November.
Then, why cost of living and affordability remain top of mind for some young voters. We heard from a Wayne State University student in our latest installment of What the Vote?, a series of conversations with Gen Z voters leading up to the 2026 Midterm Elections.
Plus, a preview of the kinds of stories that will be told at this year's Detroit Story Fest, a live event featuring local journalists and storytellers. We featured two live recording from previous years' storytellers, Bryce Huffman and Shannon Cason.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Thomas W. Howe, Fenton resident and candidate for Michigan Supreme Court
Cody Bannick, Bad Axe native and Wayne State University junior
Bryce Huffman, engagement editor for Bridge Detroit
Shannon Cason, Detroit-based storyteller and host of the podcast Homemade
Today on Stateside, a conversation with Michigan Supreme Court candidate Megan Cavanagh. She currently serves as chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Cavanagh was selected by her fellow justices to be chief justice in 2025 after Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement resigned from the court. She was first elected to the court in 2018 and is running for a new eight-year term.
Then, a closer look at a jaywalking stop that resulted in immigration enforcement being called. Our recent investigation found hundreds of cases where local police in Michigan turned people over to immigration enforcement.
Plus, the work being done to protect apples against threats like climate change, bacterial disease, and industrialization, and the crop of Beaver Island apples that might play a role in expanding genetic diversity. This story came from the Points North podcast.
And, why Traverse City leaders are considering a new ordinance which would allow police to arrest people in local parks for "prowling."
Today on Stateside, a conversation with Michigan Supreme Court candidate Noah Hood. In May of 2025, Hood was appointed to fill a vacancy on the state Supreme Court. That partial term will end at the end of this year.
Also, we heard from voters across Southeast Michigan about why cost of living is still top of mind leading up to the Midterm Elections.
Then, artists with disabilities from across the country will gather in Michigan this week for the Creating Community conference, a national conference focused on fostering creative spaces for artists with developmental disabilities and mental health differences.
The event is being organized by the Progressive Art Studio Collective (PASC), a Detroit-based organization. We spoke with the collective's founder, Anthony Marcellini and PASC artist Angela Rhodes, on what it takes to forge a path in the art world for work created by artists with disabilities.
Plus, in a new episode of the On Hand podcast, a sound-rich summation of the development and influence of techno music in Detroit.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Noah Hood, MI Supreme Court Justice
Etai Smotrich-Barr, Reporting Fellow at Michigan Public
Anthony Marcellini, founder and program manager of Progressive Art Studio Collective
Angela Rhodes, Detroit-based artist part of the Progressive Art Studio Collective
Nancy Steinhauer (L) and her family have been operating the Dexter Cider Mill for decades. This year, they celebrate 140 years of operation.(Rob Hess / Michigan Public )
The Dexter Cider Mill is celebrating 140 years of operation, making it the longest continually operating mill in the state of Michigan.
The mill’s cider blend includes an intricate combination of apple types, including golden delicious but never red delicious apples.
The mill offers traditional fare like cider and doughnuts, but also sells hard cider and other apple-based products.
It’s October, which means it’s now cider mill season. And like every good Michigander, the Stateside team took a trip to Dexter Cider Mill to learn more about how they make their smooth cider and cakey, soft cinnamon sugar doughnuts.
And they’ve perfected both of those fall staples in their 140 years of operation, which they’re celebrating this year. The milestone marks them as the longest continually operating mill in the state of Michigan.
The Steinhauer family is behind that operation, led by Nancy and Marty and their adult children. Nancy joined Stateside to take them on a tour of the mill and walk them through the milling process. The tour started outside the mill, where giant bins of apples await the process of becoming a drink.
How the cider gets made
Nancy Steinhauer (NS): So this is the first step of the process. We get our apples delivered from a large orchard on the west side of the state, north of Grand Rapids. These we call these bins or boxes. There are 20 bushels. In each of these bins will come bins.
April Baer (AB): This place is a mob scene on the weekends. What day do the apples get delivered?
NS: So that varies. They come in in the middle of the night on a flatbed truck. It will either be Tuesday night or Wednesday night, so we have capability to unload them, get them ready for us to press. And then up here we start with washing the apples. They go down a grind. They go down through a washer, they get ground up and then we'll go down the press room.
AB: Nancy walks us down slope along the side of the building. We're headed to the Apple Press, which is subterranean for a few good reasons.
NS: Oh, look at that first key.
April Baer, Laura Weber Davis, and Brian Manzullo stocked up on fall goodies during their visit to Dexter Cider Mill.(Rob Hess / Michigan Public )
AB: Yay! Oh, wow. Okay, so we're going under the building.
NS: So they built the cider mill on the river. Well, one, they used to dump the mash in there, but also for the coolness. It's like a root cellar almost.
AB: What you see with this cider making machine is a shoot from above, a series of layered oak racks and a large stainless steel pan with a drain right in the middle. Off to the side. There's also a giant floor to ceiling wheel and pulley system. It powers the press and it has been here as long as the mill.
NS: So that's where we talked about. The washer is above us right here. And then the apples get washed and ground and then they come down into the press.
AB: So the ground up apples actually come down through a hole in the floor. Yeah. The chute. Yeah.
NS: Two stories for for gravity reasons back in the day when they didn't have the power to maneuver.
NS: So when my parents bought the mill this was all wood. Marty and I have changed it to stainless just for obviously safety reasons and whatnot. We have a little bit of the oak still in the process, which we think adds a lot to the cider, but again, a lot's been transferred over to stainless. This is our rolling rack. We will put an oak rack down first and then it's an oak and rack, excuse me, cloth and rack system. So then we would put a cloth down for bushels of apples. Fold that like an envelope, put another rack, another cloth for more bushels of apples. And at this point we're blending the apples upstairs. We use 3 to 5 different apples in the blend. Probably go through 20 to 25 different varieties throughout the season. As we progress through the season, the cider gets sweeter the longer the apple sits on the tree, the higher the sugar content. Therefore, the sweeter the cider. It's not. Just throw a bunch of apples in and see what you come up with. There is a method to our madness and my husband, Marty, does all that.
AB: So how? I mean, how amazing is it to that? The technology hasn't really brought any innovations that this that this press couldn't do. I love that.
NS: You we probably could have a more efficient press. This is very physical. The new ones, you know, they come with a grinder and you walk around with the hose. It's a little different, but we truly are trying to keep the tradition so people can come in and see how the cider was made 100 years ago. Some days, we'd like something a little easier, but Marty has just done a great job perfecting this. We're super efficient. I can't give him enough kudos to how he has been able to work this to keep up with the demands that we have upstairs for it. So.
AB: And the flavor really speaks for itself. I just wanted to note that there are a couple of wrenches and screwdrivers, and just like everything, you'd need to keep your press just the way you want it right at hand here.
NS: And if they're not here when we need them, somebody's in trouble. Because who took the… right? Exactly.
Laura Weber Davis: That wrench looks like it might be 440 years old.
NS: Yeah, it's enough grease on it for sure to have that. Absolutely.
Celebrating the traditions
AB: Now that we've gotten a tour of the mill, it's time to learn a bit more about the operation and how this one family supplies so many people with cider and doughnuts every day for multiple generations. I mean, there are people who have literally been coming here for generations. I bet you hear that a lot.
NS: I see that a lot. My parents bought the mill when I was a sophomore in high school. So, or excuse me, a sophomore in college, and I have watched families come in with their kids. Now those kids are bringing their kids and grandma. And, you know, the parents at that time were parents. And their grandparents. So that is one of my most favorite things of the mill. So tradition and generations coming in.
AB: Obviously, people come here from Dexter, and I think you get a lot of Ann Arbor rights too. Where else do people visit from?
NS: Well, we have tons of people from Chicago. We have had our pies travel internationally to Dubai, but he would pick up a pie frozen. By the time he landed, his wife had the oven on, the pie was defrosted and into the oven it went. So we, I mean, just everywhere. The football games bring people in from whoever they're playing against and whatnot. So we've got great friends from Maryland that come in that we've befriended through the cider mill and all over the country, which is amazing.
AB: So it's just so nice that everyone, you know, from all over, wherever they're coming from, can enjoy this. Unless, of course, they're from Columbus, Ohio.
NS: Yes, right. Yes. But we welcome everybody. So red or white or blue and gold or green and white. We're all here for it. So, yeah.
The history behind the mill
AB: You mentioned the fact that your folks bought the operation in your lifetime. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of this building going all the way back?
NS: Going all the way back? Well, I did just find something interesting out. It was a flour mill before a cider mill. So that is new information. So I have to dig into that a little bit. But in 1886, Mr. Van Natter built this for farmers to bring their apples in because their drinking water was a poor quality around. So that's the guy that was the basis of the cider mill. He sold it to the Wagners. And then at that point it started to become more of a family tradition. And then obviously my parents bought it from the Wagners, and we've just continued on with that. So just the fall fun of cider and doughnuts and a crisp day with the leaves changing. And yeah.
AB: We are on a river. Do you know if a paddle wheel was at one point a part of this operation?
NS: There was no paddle wheel ever. People. That is a big assumption because we are on the river. What the owners did before us is, and there's tracks out there, they have a little trolley cart. They would dump the mash into the river. So we've been told the fish were like massive because of all the vegetation that the mash provided. So we don't do that anymore. But that is another reason why it's on the river for disposal.
AB: How did your parents get the idea that, you know what? We might want to buy a cider mill?
NS: Right. So many years ago, actually 61 or 2 years ago, they were here on a date. My dad's from the East Coast. The mill reminded him of being back home. And he said to my mom, someday, I'd love to own something like this. And lo and behold they purchased it as a retirement project. No idea what we were doing, just thought it would be fun to have a cider mill. My mom has a food background so she was great with the doughnut situation. We were told that some guys would help us transition and teach my dad and whatnot, and that didn't last very long. So we dug in and here we are and we know what we're doing. So we figured it out.
AB: Yes. You learn by doing.
NS: Correct. Exactly.
AB: At what point did you and your husband start to take more of a role in the operations?
NS: Actually, we, in 2003, Marty and I ... So when my parents bought the mill, obviously, I said I was a sophomore in college, finished my education, kind of did my thing for a while, was still working here on the weekends, helping my parents. And then when I had my kids, my dad just said, come on, let's just just do this with me and we'll whatever. And that's when I was just here full time, worked seasonally. And then Marty obviously would help on the weekends and whatnot. He may scratch his head at that point going, what are we getting into? But it's been perfect for us with our children. Now they're involved. You know, they had a great time growing up here. Their wives are all on board. Grandkids are popping in on the weekends, so just hope to continue it on. Yeah.
What it takes to operate the mill
On fall Saturdays, a line for the mill's ciders and doughnuts typically wraps around the barn.(Brian Manzullo / Michigan Public)
AB: What kind of life is it?
NS: I think, I do think it's funny, somebody asked us the other day, like what? What do people, don't see behind the scenes? And our hours are crazy. I mean, I'm up at three in the morning. 3:30 arrival. You know, we do close at five. We're out of here pretty, well at five, and we're closed Monday and Tuesdays. I don't take those days off. It's busy, but it's OK. I mean, we people think we work three months out of the year, which is not so. I mean, there's more to it than that. A lot of prepping paperwork, all that kind of stuff. Physically, you know, three months we are here. But it's fun. We have it down. I've done it so long. We've got the routine, got it figured out a little bit.
AB: So the time when a lot of people really start paying attention is toward the end of August, the beginning of September, you know, the mornings start to get a little cooler, a little crisp. But when do you consider the onset? Where does your prep start for prime cider season?
NS: So when do we start prepping for… We probably come back, well, Marty's here a lot in the winter just because hard cider is brewing and adding and stuff like that. So that's the other thing too with the hard cider that's year round now for the most part. I probably start prepping, I've learned a lot. I would come in, I'd clean everything and then I'd just have to do it all over again because it would sit for months. So I probably start prepping like April. We paint all the floors. We paint walls every season because the building is so old. We're trying to get some big projects under our belt. So the kids, when they do take over eventually, hopefully that the bigger things are out of the way and they can just focus on the business. So we try to do a big project every year, whether we do it or hire it out. So April, I'm back over here. April: doughnut machines, like I said, painting, all that kind of stuff.
AB: The flavor is unlike any other, I got to say, you know, if people aren't drinking fresh cider, I don't even know what they're doing. But how would you describe the ingredients that go into making a really good glass of cider.
NS: We look for the acidity. We look for the skin color, the sugar content of the apple. Those are all items that we look at before we start pressing. So we don't want like an all Jonathan cider way too tart, way too dark. We don't want a total delicious, which we only use golden delicious. We don't use red delicious - high sugar content. So there is a method to our madness with our blending for sure.
All about the doughnuts
AB: Of course. Also no visit to the cider mills complete without the doughnuts. I confess that might be my favorite part. How do you describe [these]? For those five people who may be listening, who haven't haven't experienced them, how do you describe cider doughnuts?
NS: They are a fry cake, a traditional fry cake. Just a bunch of yummy stuff fried in a machine. They go down, they flip halfway over. Some are plain, some are cinnamon sugared, but they're just sweet and yummy.
AB: Nancy, how long have doughnuts been part of the operation here at the Dexter mill?
NS: Oh, the entire time we've had the mill. And I know the previous owners had it. I'm not quite sure before the Wagners what they did then, but we have pictures of people standing. They used to use this door right here, and they didn't have a salesroom before, so they would just make the doughnuts and cider and sell it right out the door here.
AB: So I imagine the folks on the bakery side of the operation, just having this enormous shaker of specialness that they just shake in. How what what is your secret? Why are the doughnuts so good here?
NS: My mom just perfected it. I mean, honestly, with her food background, we have a huge following for doughnuts, obviously. We just take pride in what we do, and we're precise with what we do, and we just. Some days the machines are a little trickier than others, and we just love them a little bit and just say, come on, keep going, keep going, keep going. And they do.
AB: Are the machines on the doughnut making side of the operation also? I don't want to say historic, but ...
NS: No. ... But I know there's bigger and better ones out there. But these work for us and we only have two doughnut machines. I mean, we kick out a lot of doughnuts for, I mean, we don't stop on busy October Saturdays and Sundays all day long. We have a little batch board. So we know how many batches we make a day and stuff like that. So that's kind of fun for us to always watch and stuff. But yeah they are, they are… I know there's something better out there, but these are perfect for us. They work. No, not a better doughnut, maybe a better piece of equipment. But we love ours, so yeah, yeah yeah yeah. No, our doughnuts are good. So we'll just stay with what we have on the equipment end.
AB: So there are other places where you can get apple cider. There are other places where you can get doughnuts. I know this is a very controversial thing for me to say, but I just feel like here in Michigan, people, this is so much a part of what they do in September and October. Have you ever seen any place else that really leans into cider culture like we do?
NS: I would say New York probably has you know, so New York, Washington State and Michigan are, you know, the three top Apple producing states in the country. So I just think everybody does it a little bit differently. It's funny in Michigan, from what I've seen, everybody has their cider mill. Like if you're Dexter Cider Mill, they're very territorial of their cider mills. It's pretty interesting. And it's fun for us to follow, but the other states that I think I know Ohio has a few, but I think the culture in Michigan with the leaves changing and all that and the terrain. And there's 120 cider mills in Michigan. I mean, it's a big yeah, that number may have dwindled a little bit, but between I would say probably between 100, 120 still some are big. We are very small in the cider mill spectrum, much bigger facilities out there than we are, but we don't want to change anything and we have no more room to expand. So what you see is what you get. So yeah. And we just try to do what we do really well. So people continue to come back.
AB: The Dexter Cider Mill is on the outskirts of downtown Dexter. Look for the bags of cider doughnuts with the spots on the outside. Nancy Steinhauer, congratulations on 140 years of Dexter Cider Mill.
NS: Thank you. We're super honored and just thrilled we can carry on with the tradition. Thank you.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can play the full audio of the interview near the top of this page.
Today on Stateside, we continued a series of conversations with candidates running for Michigan's Supreme Court. Casandra Morse-Bills is a Republican, and a presiding judge for a state circuit court on the edge of Saginaw Bay.
Also, photographer Joseph Ferraro talked about his practice of zooming in on insect life. Ferraro's workspace is part of a Detroit building in which artists are hosting open studios this weekend.
Finally, we spoke with advocate Valerie von Frank. The founder of Parents of Sister Survivors Engage (POSSE), von Frank has assisted survivors of sexual assault in legal and personal struggles. We turn to her for perspectives on the Cornell Seven case, in which an unnamed student is suing the university, her sorority, and a Cornell fraternity and seven of its members for an alleged sexual assault.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Casandra Morse-Bills, presiding judge in Michigan’s 23rd Judicial Court
Steve Carmody, Mid-Michigan reporter for Michigan Public.
Joseph Ferraro, photographer.
Valerie von Frank, founder of Parents of Sister Survivors Engage (POSSE).
Today on Stateside, where do young people turn when the moral stances that move them are not easy to find in the current political landscape? We talked to one young voter to find out in our latest installment of What the Vote?.
Then, Michigan's environmental agency is sending investigators to look into complaints of noxious odors using finely tuned instruments: their noses.
Plus, journalist Andrew Lapin brought us a tale of two bridges: the Ambassador, the Gordie Howe, and the guy who put a wrench in U.S.-Canadian relations.
Finally, scientists at the University of Michigan have figured out a new way to break down nitrate, a major water pollutant found in fertilizers. We talked to one of the lead researchers about what this could mean for cleaning up the country's waterways.
Looking for today’s It’s Just Politics? You can find it here.
Guests on today's show:
Dewaynia English, young voter from Kentwood, Mich.
Elliot Russell, WMUK reporter
Andrew Lapin, senior reporter with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Nathaniel Szymczak, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan
There have been many instances of massive turnout at public meetings about data centers in communities throughout the state of Michigan. Angry and concerned residents are expressing frustration with their public officials about even the potential of a new build, or the concerns over facilities that are already under construction.
In many cases, elected officials may have less recourse on the matter. A new survey from the Ford School for Public Policy at the University of Michigan shows most elected officials also have hesitations or skepticism themselves about new data center proposals. Stephanie Leiser, director of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the U of M's Ford School (CLOSUP), led this survey and joined Stateside's April Baer to discuss.
April Baer: Stephanie, welcome back to Stateside. It's good to see you.
Stephanie Leiser: Wonderful to be here.
AB: Before we get to the results, I'm just curious, were you able to get responses from very many local governments that you asked about this?
SL: Yes. So we run this survey regularly, and it is our goal to achieve a 70% response rate. And there's 1,856 cities, villages, townships, and counties in the state. And so we hear from 70% of them. And I think one thing that allows us to do is hear from parts of the state that we don't often hear from.
AB: Meaning to say smaller units of government.
SL: Smaller communities, smaller townships. And and as we know, these are some of the people who have the strongest feelings about data centers right now.
AB: I saw from the overview of the numbers that a majority of people who responded expected strong opposition. How did that line up with how they actually felt about the data centers themselves?
SL: So we noticed a few interesting things. When you ask sort of generally, do you think data centers, you know, considering all the costs and benefits, do you think they're worth it? When you ask them just themselves in general, there's maybe some receptiveness to it, but still opposition more than support. But then when you sort of zoom in and say, how do you think your residents feel? Or how do you think your city council or your board feels about this? That's when the opposition gets a little bit stronger. There are all kinds of things to consider with data centers in the community and things that might be on the cost side and the benefit side. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of concern about fresh water and utility bills and public health and quality of life. But one thing we uncovered too is there's, you know, generally a recognition among public officials that this may still have some positive effects, like you know, they are thinking about economic competitiveness. They are thinking about impact on local property tax base. And still, well, while you weigh all of those things together, there is, you know, much more opposition than there is support. I think this is a more nuanced conversation than sometimes we hear about.
AB: Did you get a sense of whether municipal leaders in rural settings felt very differently than people in more urban settings?
SL: Yeah, definitely. We see stronger opposition in rural communities. It's partly a function of, you know, this is where they're being sited, right? You can't plunk down a gigantic data center in the middle of a city. And so they are looking at more rural parts of the state, you know, so that's part of it too, is that this is definitely something that is impacting their communities more, but also that you know, when you have smaller townships or smaller communities, it's sort of a David and Goliath situation. Like how can you expect them to bargain with and deal with these massive companies and massive developments. So it's also a sort of a capacity issue as well as a political issue for, for smaller and rural places.
AB: Did you notice many responses to the survey that reflected a sense of inevitability?
SL: I think there's definitely a sense of inevitability. And we did get a lot of comments to that effect. But I think that sort of could go one of two ways. Like it's inevitable. So we might as well take advantage of it, is I think maybe the minority opinion. And then the, you know, maybe we got more opinions to the effect of: this is inevitable. What can we do? We just sort of throw up our hands and accept our fate.
AB: Were there any questions that were part of the survey that that might have given us some insight into how local leaders feel like they're going to decide these questions.
SL: Well, I think one thing that's also really important that pops out of the survey is how much they are sort of begging the state for help. And this is actually somewhat surprising because local governments are often very, you know, like, stay out of our business, let us handle ourselves. But I think in this case, they're, they're really asking the state for help. So, what happens with decommissioning if these projects stop functioning? And this, you know, like they're so big and they're such large users of utilities, this is a big concern for down the road. They want help from the state to think through health and environmental impacts. They want the state to help them deal with regulations around water use and discharge. They don't want the state to interfere in their ability to do zoning and planning and siting of centers. They want to maintain that authority. But the types of resources that they're looking for; 57% say it would be very useful to have model ordinances. 57% say that they'd really like help, you know, guidance negotiating with data centers. They want to try to coordinate with the county and their other local governments. They need help figuring out how to do resident engagement. There's a lot of need. And I think there's a kind of frustration with the state that, you know, the state adopted these incentives for data centers, and now they're just sort of sitting on the sidelines, leaving local governments to fend for themselves and deal with all their angry residents in the process. So it's really they're kind of between a rock and a hard place.
AB: Stephanie Leiser directs the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy within the University of Michigan's Ford School. Stephanie, it's good to talk to you. Thank you for your help with this.
SL: Very happy to. Thanks!
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can play the full audio of the interview near the top of this page.
Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield faces felony charges over campaign contributions, following his fall from political prominence amid corruption allegations. We spoke with Bridge Michigan politics reporter Simon Schuster about his reporting.
Then, Grand Rapids resident Mario David Coronado Juarez died in a car crash shortly after an encounter with ICE agents last Sunday. While officials say there was no pursuit, questions remain about the moments before the crash. Stateside Producer Michelle Jokisch Polo has been following the story.
Plus, a federal judge heard emergency testimony this week from Krystal Clark, who is seeking to leave the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility due to alleged life-threatening toxic mold exposure. Michigan Public’s Zena Issa had the details.
And as the Festival of the Book takes place in Harbor Springs, IPR’s Astrid Code visited Petoskey to follow in Ernest Hemingway’s footsteps at his old summer haunts.
Finally, Michigan lawmaker Tom Barrett discusses the impact of AI technology and the growth of data centers across the state, exploring what these developments mean for Michigan’s future. He spoke on the weekly call-in show, Michigan We Need To Talk.
GUESTS:
Simon Schuster, reports on politics for Bridge Michigan
Michelle Jokisch Polo, Stateside Producer
Zena Issa, Michigan Public, criminal justice reporter
Astrid Code, Interlochen Public Radio reporter
Stephen Henderson, host of "Michigan We Need To Talk"
Congressman Tom Barrett, Republican representing the 8th district
Foam caused by PFAS contamination at one of the many sites in the state where the "forever" chemicals have been found.(Lester Graham / Michigan Radio)
The legacy of Michigan's industrial history includes several places around the state where land and water are contaminated by so-called forever chemicals, or PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Scientific consensus is that contact with PFAS has serious repercussions for human and animal health. The state has spent years trying to develop a cleanup strategy.
MLive reporter Garret Ellison joined Stateside to talk about where the state's effort to clean up PFAS contaminated sites stand right now.
Earlier this year, Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared Sept. 21-25 PFAS Awareness Week. The state encourages Michiganders to "take steps to reduce their exposure to PFAS through actions such as sampling their private drinking water well to see if it is impacted by PFAS, checking the Eat Safe Fish guides before consuming locally caught fish, avoiding foam on surface water, and reducing the use of consumer products that can contain PFAS," according to the State of Michigan website.
"Michigan's been dealing with [PFAS] in an intense way for almost a decade. But, you know, really the chemicals were first found here in about 2010, 2011, found by the state at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda," Ellison said. "But it, it was sort of dealt with intermittently, quietly site-specific ways until the Wolverine contamination in 2017 kind of blew up."
While the Wolverine contamination brought PFAS contamination to the forefront, there are locations in Michigan that are impacted by the substances that may not be as widely known.
"The amount of sites in Michigan where there's a known source of contaminants and it exceeds the state's criteria for cleanup or remedial criteria in groundwater is about 350. And that's sites with known sources," Ellison said. "There's also another about 40 areas known as area of interest investigations where it may be like a neighborhood with low detections and some wells, and they're not exactly sure where the contaminants are coming from, but they may be exceeding what is considered to be safe drinking water levels. So there's a response going on."
The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team was created in 2017, and Ellison said the state has since then been testing drinking water and testing fish in order to find other locations that may be contaminated. There's also concern about contaminated groundwater entering farm fields and leaching PFAS into the agricultural products from those fields.
"The state launched a large scale public water supply testing effort, and that was an effort to identify all the municipal and community water supplies across Michigan that may have had the chemicals, and they did find lots of public water systems that had them," Ellison explained. "And that directly led to state rules in 2020, requiring testing and filtration in a lot of these water supplies. So there has been, you know, through finding the data, there has been concrete steps taken to reduce people's exposure to it. That doesn't necessarily mean that we're done dealing with PFAS, though."
Despite the work to locate the current 350 contaminated sites, Ellison said there's not a lot of work being done to clean up those locations. Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda is operating several interim remedial systems, which target hot spots on the base. It's meant to be a stopgap system until a larger base-wide remedial treatment plan can be put in place, according to Ellison.
"I think it's worth remembering, particularly now that we're in the midst of PFAS Awareness Week, that it was really sort of ordinary regular citizens who put us on this path," Ellison said. "In the Rockford area, it was a citizen group led by a woman named Lynn McIntosh, who was a piano teacher who just, you know, kind of refused to be deterred. [...] And, you know, citizens like her just sort of refuse to take no for an answer. They continue digging. They continue finding evidence of the use and disposal of this stuff, and eventually forced the hand of regulators. It was regular citizens that put us on the path to getting here."
Today on Stateside, after federal funding losses, two Detroit museums are asking voters to contribute to a new funding model. We'll talk to the heads of those museums about the Say Yes to Our Story millage.
Also, the Detroit Tigers’ ballpark has a new name. Fan reactions are mixed, but it isn't the first stadium naming controversy in Detroit. We talk to veteran Detroit reporter Bill McGraw to get some historical context on the new name.
Looking for today’s It’s Just Politics? You can find it here.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Neil Barclay, president and CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Elana Rugh, president and CEO of the Detroit Historical Society
Bill McGraw, veteran journalist and Detroit historian
Alice Coltrane in a 1972 publicity photo for promoting her album <i>World Galaxy.</i>( Wikimedia Commons)
America is celebrating the centennial of jazz giant John Coltrane this year. And in Detroit, the visionary saxophonist, composer, and bandleader’s legacy is thriving.
Coltrane was a frequent presence on the city’s stages alongside veterans like Donald Byrd after World War II – the golden age of bebop – and made some of his most compelling music in the company of legendary drummer Elvin Jones, a native of Pontiac. But John Coltrane’s deepest tie to the city is his marriage in 1965 to multi-instrumentalist, composer, spiritual seeker, and Detroiter Alice Coltrane (née McLeod).
Andy Beta's 2026 biography of multi-instrumentalist, composer, and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane. ( DaCapo Books)
In Andy Beta’s new biography, Cosmic Music: the Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, Detroit is the backdrop for Alice’s formative period studying at Cass Tech’s famed music program, her work in gospel settings, and her adult years on Detroit stages.
“She is a historical part of the Detroit jazz music scene,” said Beta, speaking to Stateside about the mind-bogglingly rich environment that nurtured Alice Coltrane.
“John Lee Hooker was recording not far from where she lives. Berry Gordy, the future founder of Motown, is her next door neighbor, and [their] families are very close through most of her life.” Beta says he gained an understanding for Alice Coltrane’s work through Detroit jazz history: her half-brother Ernie Farrow played with Yusef Lateef, and “the people who were kind of just before her, like the harpist Dorothy Ashby, and another bebop pianist Terry Pollard, who was very much a mentor and a big sister to [Coltrane]. She's the one who gives the family the first piano, and sets Alice on this path.”
John Coltrane had been performing in Detroit for about a decade when he met Alice McLeod in the early 1960s. She joined his band at the keyboard, and their mutual interest in the divine gave rise to some of Coltrane’s most memorable compositions, like A Love Supreme. Beta said Alice Coltrane also deserves credit for Coltrane’s position in American culture.
“We're celebrating John Coltrane's centennial and the legacy of John Coltrane,” he said. “And that's all due to the work that she did in the wake of his passing. Of making sure that his legacy lived on, that his catalog lived on. There [are] at least a dozen records that of his that saw release because of her curation and her dedication, to say nothing of the John Coltrane Festivals that she put on through the ‘80s and ‘90s.”
In later years, after her husband's death, Beta said, Alice Coltrane moved West, immersing herself in Eastern religion, and founding an ashram. Adopting the name Swamini Turiyasangitananda, her music ventured into previously unexplored sonic territory, beyond the strictures of straight-ahead jazz.
Beta’s affecting treatment of Alice Coltrane’s life and music deliver a revitalized appreciation for an artist who faced down multiple personal and professional challenges, while staying true to her personal journey. While in her lifetime, critics often dismissed her work, her role as a forerunner in jazz and pop gets its due in this telling.
New reporting from the Detroit Free Press shows a resident at Michigan State's medical school has been accused of two sexual assaults on patients. Arpit Saxena, 39, is accused of sexually assaulting two patients in April 2025. The Detroit Free Press has learned that the day after the first allegation of sexual assault was made to police, Saxena continued to treat patients.
Alice Coltrane was a composer, pianist, harpist, and singer, born in Detroit in 1937. Many know her through her marriage to jazz great John Coltrane, who would’ve been 100 years old this year. We spoke with Andy Beta about his biography, Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane. Beta is doing a virtual event with Detroit Public Library on Wednesday, September 23. Details here.
Plus, our On Hand team explores the volcanic ridge beneath us that most Michiganders don’t even know is there. Find the story here.
GUESTS:
Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press reporter
Andy Beta, author of Cosmic Music: the Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane
Erika Vye, geosciences research scientist at the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Tech University
Daniel Lizzadro-McPherson, geospatial research scientist at Michigan Tech University
Today on Stateside, the Trump administration this week announced it will roll back rules governing power plant emissions, despite clear evidence of climate change and an overwhelming consensus among scientists that it is caused by human activity. We talked to Rachel Rothschild, an assistant professor at Michigan Law, whose work lies at the intersection between scientific research and public policy.
Also, The Dish takes a long weekend Up North with some of Traverse City's top chefs and explores what makes the food scene there so special.
Plus, writer Lillian Li on her smash novel Bad Asians, which imagines a group of high-achievers coming of age in the Great Recession.
GUESTS ON TODAY'S SHOW:
Rachel Rothschild, assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School
Mercedes Mejia, Stateside senior producer and host of The Dish
Lillian Li, author of Bad Asians and Number One Chinese Restaurant
Sounds From the Park Freedom Festival 2025 Poster(Ndubisi Okoye)
Detroit composer, musician, and saxophonist Marcus Elliot’s new album incorporates the sounds, activities, and energy from five Detroit parks.
The five tracks on the album are named after the Detroit locations where the original performances took place: Eliza Howell, Clark, Chandler, Palmer, and Belle Isle.
The album is available on Spotify starting September 17.
Stateside Host April Baer spoke to Marcus Elliot about the process of composing this album.
The following is a transcript that has been edited for clarity.
April Baer: Were there some things that in each case, you felt like you wanted to understand before you could come up with the concept for each composition?
Marcus Elliot: I really wanted to make sure that I approached this project from a place of listening. Listening is really important when it comes to making music, and especially as a composer, listening to not just the environment, but the community that cared for these parks was really an important process for me.
Originally, I got to be honest; I was excited about this project because I was like, “Man, I get to spend an entire year in the parks - a dream project for me.” Then, as I got to spend more time in the parks and meet the people, and really just listen and see what the parks had to say, what the communities had to say, it really left an impact on me.
AB: Each park ultimately became its own musical world in that each one had different melodies, of course, but it was a different theme and a different ensemble of musicians and a different composition.
[Eliza Howell Park] is on the edge of Brightmoor, I think, and this is a big park. It's about 250 acres. It's got some relatively wild spaces. And people might know of the Stickwork sculpture that, you know, kids just love playing over there. Can we talk first about what you experienced when you were spending time at the park and how you developed the piece?
ME: Eliza Hall Park is a special one for me because it's very close to my house on the west side. And some of my son's earliest memories will actually be at this park because we spent a lot of time there.
The other great thing is, out of all of the parks in Detroit, this one has really allowed the natural space to just thrive there, so it almost feels like you're not in Detroit while at the same time being a very Detroit experience.
It's kind of like both things; it doesn't feel like you're in the city, but you are just in this green space. It's very quiet there, and it's huge. It's a really large park. But I wanted some power as well behind the music. So I added a great drummer and a pianist keyboardist to kind of add that punch to it as well. That's what I was attempting to kind of capture with that ensemble.
AB: Can you talk a little bit about the elements of sounds from the parks that you worked in to some of these compositions, like actual recordings of, say, birdsong, or kids playing or different things that people would hear. What was your sense of when to incorporate those?
ME: The thing that I incorporated more than anything was actually the voices of the caretakers and the stewards of the park. So not on this track, but on some of the other songs that we have done and also on the album as well, that will be coming out. You'll be hearing voices and those voices are actual stewards and community members that care for the parks - this is where Sidewalk Detroit did a lot of help.
They helped me gather a lot of these different interviews and conversations of different park stewards. I took a lot of those and I chopped them up and did some different things with them, and I allowed that. I allowed a lot of the compositions to surround what they were speaking about, and what they were talking about.
In a lot of those interviews in the background, you hear the birds or you hear kids playing or in one of them, at first we were upset about it, but I was like, no, I'll leave it in there. There was somebody with a lawn mower cutting. One of the things, it was like, yeah, that's part of it. I wanted it to have all those elements in there.
AB: Are there ways that doing this changes the way you understand the parks or Detroit or the communities that make up the city?
ME: One hundred percent. I think especially when it comes to our parks, I took for granted, because you don't see these people, you don't see these sort of silent heroes that show up every day, every week to clean up a playground or to care for a community garden or to, you know, run that little like soccer league or these sort of things that.
You just assume that somebody is doing it or, you know, someone's on staff somewhere to do it. But these are literally, in a lot of these situations, it's just the community. It's just community members, just our neighbors. It's how we care for one another, you know, without anybody asking us to, you know, you just do what needs to be done.
That's why this place is so resilient. That's where the resilience is – it's not any sort of any other thing. That's truly in these communities that we have. So it was just a humbling experience to see that. And it definitely changed the way that I think about how I want to show up, as a neighbor, as a father.
AB: Well now that all these compositions performed in the parks are becoming an album, people who are listening to them may actually have their earbuds in and be standing at Palmer or Belle Isle or Eliza Howell and listening to it while experiencing the park.
Have you thought much about what might carry over and how the music might change when it's listened to outside of the parks a little bit, a little bit less in context?
ME: I mean, I've been listening to it in my car. You know, like I've just been listening to it in the house, in the car. My experience is a little bit different. I'm immediately tranced, it's like, it takes me to space. Like I'm there in the park.
And I think anybody who was able to attend some of the performances, when they hear it, they will be like, boom. It will take them back to the park. And yeah, I would highly suggest anybody who is checking out the album, listen to it. If you get a chance, go to the park where we recorded it, and listen to it, and experience it there.
I think it will really leave an impact. And also just so that you can, especially if it's a park that you haven't visited yet and you're not familiar with. I would highly suggest going and spending some time there and getting to know that park. And hopefully that music can be a bridge for some of the people here in Detroit who haven't been to some of these parks to go check them out.
Stateside is produced daily by a dedicated group of producers and production assistants. Listen daily, on-air, at 3 and 8 p.m., or subscribe to the daily podcast wherever you like to listen.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested the highest number of people in Michigan this summer. The highest since President Donald Trump took office. We break down the numbers with MLive investigative reporter, Rose White.
Then, what do Uzbek melons and Detroit barbecues have in common? More than you'd think. A conversation with food writer and Michigander, Anna Ansari.
Plus, on Its Just Politics, absentee ballots will start hitting mailboxes soon. Find the full story here.
GUESTS:
Rose White, MLive Investigative Reporter
Anna Ansari, author of Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing
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