The U.S. House approved the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, with provisions designed to help Americans wrongfully detained by other countries. That includes Michigan native Paul Whelan, who was held by Russia for more than five years before his release this summer in a massive prisoner exchange.

Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens co-chairs a House task force on hostages and wrongful detainees. She says the new defense act should help both detainees like Whelan and their families.

Listen: Congress moves to help wrongful detainees

The following interview was edited for clarity.

Rep. Haley Stevens: While we’re delighted to see Paul Whelan return home, we also have ongoing wrongful detainee situations and hostage situations all across the world. One that’s really visceral is the ongoing hostage taking in the Middle East, in Gaza. And what we want to do is make it harder for adversaries of this country to take Americans. We want to put our full weight into deterrence. We want to make sure that we have a sound strategy. We want to make sure we have the resources. And I am absolutely thrilled that after a lot of work, we got into the defense bill several key provisions around deterrence, around passport applications, to cut through some of the steps. If you are taken, God forbid, you will immediately have resources if you choose to select that on your passport application.

And we also are saying that we mean business. So one of the key things that we did is improve already existing legislation, the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. No later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this legislation, relevant agencies will be coordinated from the White House through multiple government agencies when a citizen is detained. Because one of the things that we found is, no surprise with a big federal government, the left hand is not talking to the right hand a lot of times. So we’re opening up communication strategies. That is absolutely critical for what we call emergency hostage or wrongful detention situations.

Another provision will authorize $2 million to the Departments of State and Treasury to carry out sanction authorities. Sometimes people engage in illegal activity abroad and that’s another matter. But on other occasions, they are taken and wrongfully detained, wrongfully held. That’s exactly what happened to Paul Whelan, to Trevor Reed, to Brittney Griner to a certain extent. We’ve got other state actors, like Iran, that disappear people. And we don’t have diplomacy with that state around the hostage. What Putin did in Russia is he wanted to swap prisoners.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: When you talk about the Levinson Act, another portion of that is supposed to help those that are wrongfully detained when they return. Provide them with five years of medical coverage, mental health and other support, et cetera. Congress has never funded that provision. Of the $2 million that you mention, will any of it fund that portion of the Levinson Act that would help wrongful detainees when they return?

HS: We need to do that. That’s the next phase, to get those appropriations. And there’s more to do around the Levinson Act, frankly. Someone like Paul Whelan had five-and-a-half years taken from him. If he was wrongfully in prison in the United States, he’d arguably get a compensation fund. Paul Whelan right now is living off of a GoFundMe. It’s unacceptable and it’s wrong. I’m certainly in some respects disappointed in his former employer for not keeping him on their payroll. Paul’s lived experience is very elucidating. So we need to think about compensation.

The advocacy piece that we got done in the NDAA at the end of 2023 created a fund that allows families to receive lodging when they’re advocating on behalf of their loved one. We’re amending that in this year’s NDAA. It is really important. Elizabeth Whelan, Paul’s sister, spent over $100,000 over six years with endless hours of traveling and coordinating with the government. She was just in my office for two-and-a-half hours the other day. These are ways in which we need to make Americans and American families whole. People are being targeted because they’re American. In Paul’s case and in Trevor Reed’s case, they were former U.S. Marines as well.

QK: No one has a crystal ball. But when you talk about adding extra funding into the Levinson Act, or any other funding that would aid this cause, it would all be coming when the Trump administration would be in effect with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress. They have talked often about not wanting to fund certain areas and cutting back on spending. Do you have any concerns that funding for wrongful detainees is going to fall prey to that view by the incoming administration and Congress?

HS: I feel more optimistic than not that we will continue to move forward. People from all political stripes are very passionate about these hostages and wrongful detainees and their return home. It’s really personal.

My colleague, Texas Republican Congressman Michael Cloud, had a wrongful detainee, a political prisoner in China, who was released a handful of weeks ago. He said that this individual did not know what a QR code is because of all the years that they had been detained. There’s just support that is needed.

We are authorizing and appropriating funds year after year as a Congress. I remain very confident that we will continue to do good legislation. We will continue to work towards making people like Paul Whelan whole. I am not stopping. And every step of the way, this legislation has been bipartisan, helping hostages fight for their return and make their return as easy as possible. There’s absolutely more to do. But this year’s NDAA is, in my opinion, a sign of more to come.

A metro Detroit cancer specialist is applauding a foundation’s efforts to address the long-standing need for increasing the number of people of color who participate in clinical trials.

The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation has offered a new round of scholarships and internships for medical students to help recruit people from underrepresented or disadvantaged communities to join the trials.

Wayne State University Professor of Oncology Hayley Thompson directs outreach and engagement for the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

She says patients sometimes respond much more positively when they talk with a doctor who shares their same background.

Listen: WSU oncology professor on importance of including people of color in clinical trials

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Hayley Thompson: When we decrease that social distance between a health care provider and a patient, we know that communication is stronger. There’s more relationship building. Patients ask more questions. We see that definitely in data. So it would stand to reason that when a Black physician might approach a Black patient around participating in a clinical trial, which is basically research, they might be more open and willing to participate in that work because they’re being asked by someone who is similar to them in terms of group membership and culture and experiences. It may also be the case that those physicians may be communicating more effectively with those patients as well. However, I think that’s only one piece of the puzzle.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: What would you say are some of the other parts? Does it seem that people of color are often more reluctant than others to join in these clinical trials?

HT: I think there are multiple reasons. You have to look at the patient level. And a lot of times it’s just a lack of knowledge about what a clinical trial is. I was recently talking with some of my community partners and colleagues about the fact that it has the word “trial” in it, right? Trials don’t necessarily have great connotations for many groups and for many people. And there’s not necessarily a lot of public awareness about the role that clinical trials and research play in disease prevention and innovative treatment or quality of life when you’re coping with disease or illness. I work in a cancer center, so cancer clinical trials are a huge part of what we do. But you have to be treated on site. So we have to really think about whether people of color have equal access to the settings where clinical trials are being offered. Any barriers to access to health care are similar to the barriers to accessing clinical trials. Think about transportation, child care, food insecurity, all the things that are going to come into play and potentially be barriers to participating in a clinical trial as well.

There’s a lot of research that shows oftentimes African Americans and other people of color are not even asked to join clinical trials. And that has to do, to some degree, with biases within our health care systems. Providers may be making assumptions that some people may not be interested in trials. Or it may be too difficult to explain what a trial is or persuade them to participate in it. So that’s a piece of it too. Because when people understand what clinical trials are about, when it’s explained well and they are asked in an appropriate way, people are interested. I think it’s a little bit of a myth to say that people just don’t trust trials. There are a lot of factors that influence people’s interest. Another factor that is also really key here, that is not talked about as often, are the eligibility criteria depending on who is sponsoring the trials. And sometimes people are not eligible because of co-morbidities or other chronic conditions or diseases they may have that might disqualify them. And sometimes those disqualifying conditions really would not necessarily affect the outcomes of the trial.

QK: I’ve talked with some people who will still bring up those infamous Tuskegee experiments, where they had 400 Black men with syphilis who were never treated or even told what the experiment was about. That still seems to resonate with some people. They really either have a fear or a suspicion about any kind of clinical trials. Have you found that is a factor as well?

HT: I think that certainly is something that is part of a collective memory and influences the decision of some around trials. And it’s important that we remember that. But I think people also look to current day racism in health care and their own experiences or those of their friends and family members. Negative experiences in health care settings or negative experiences with research today have just as much of an influence as Tuskegee. And that’s something we can do something about right now in 2024. How do we make clinical trials more easily understood by the general population? How do we make it easier for them to participate? And how do we help people understand the protections that are in place? Those are things that we can tackle today that don’t have anything to do with Tuskegee.

QK: On the other side of it, when you look at what is currently happening with clinical trials, it sounds like most of the participants are white. How much does that throw off the results or affect whatever comes from these trials and what they could do for the total population?

HT: It’s a huge issue. If we don’t have diversity in our clinical trials then we don’t have a complete picture about the impact of the interventions that we’re testing. Trials are supportive care. And whether it be due to ancestry or genetic factors or because of cultural reasons, different groups of people are different. And we need to have that representation in our trials to really understand how certain strategies work across different groups of people. There really is a significant limitation when we don’t have that diversity in our samples for our trials.

There’s ongoing work here in Detroit at Karmanos and across the country addressing this issue. I oversee the Karmanos Office of Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement. With our community partners and just regular people who want to participate in our work around cancer prevention and control, we’ve created a video about clinical trials. It has diverse physicians and scientists talking about the trials. It has cancer survivors who talk about their experiences on cancer clinical trials. And we’ve seen increases in people’s knowledge about trials and a shift in their attitudes where people are much more interested in participating in clinical trials. We see increases also in their belief that people of color should be a part of clinical trials. And that’s just from our community information video. That’s a strategy that we want to disseminate throughout our hospital and even to other parts of the country. I have a colleague at Wake Forest University where they have a whole program targeting health care providers. It’s called “Just Ask.” It tries to break down the barriers for health care providers, making sure that they consistently offer clinical trials to all their patients, regardless of race, ethnicity or other demographics.

In 1934 the Detroit Lions played the first pro football game ever held on Thanksgiving. They lost to the Chicago Bears.

Nearly a century later, the Lions face the Bears again on Thanksgiving.

But this time Detroit takes the field as one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl.

Detroit Football Network founder Justin Rogers has reported on the Lions for more than a dozen years.

He told WDET the team is primed to win its first Turkey Day game since 2016.

“They’re well coached, they’re aggressive, they’re mentally strong. It just doesn’t seem like anything fazes this team, physically or mentally.”

—Justin Rogers, Founder of the Detroit Football Network

Listen: Justin Rogers

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Justin Rogers, Detroit Football Network: This Lions team under Head Coach Dan Campbell is kind of about ending streaks, they’ve ended several negative streaks under him, So it only makes sense that they knock another one off here on this holiday.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: They’re heading into this game with a bit of a banged-up roster, especially on defense And this is a short week with only four days between games. How do you think that’s going to impact the Turkey Day contest?

JR: Every time they get an injury you wonder if the attrition is going to catch up to this team. They’ve suffered so many this year and so many big names, obviously, with star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson being at the top of that list. But remarkably, they just seem to continue to get better. They currently rank second in the NFL in points allowed, despite all these different guys that they’ve lost. And so, it’s going to be another puzzle for defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to figure out. But I don’t know what more to say about the job that he’s done this year. He’s put himself firmly on the head coaching track. He was on it anyway but really needed the results to accentuate his resume. With overcoming these injuries, it’s a no-brainer for some team to give him that shot.

QK: The Lions defense is facing a quarterback who’s had a little bit of an up-and-down year so far, which you would expect for a rookie, even a No. 1 overall pick like Caleb Williams. But he seems to have been really pulling it together the last couple of games, since they got a new offensive coordinator for him with the Bears. Do you think he can take another step in this particular game against the lions?

JR: That’s the thing with rookies, right? It’s all about finding the level, finding consistency. And the good signs for Williams is that the last five games, he hasn’t thrown at interception. Turnovers are often a problem that plague young quarterbacks. He’s got quite a bit of weapons around him. They put him in a very good position to succeed as a rookie and it seems like he is taking to his new offensive coordinator. They’ve only been together for two games. It’s a very small sample size. It’s tough to judge exactly what that means. But we saw what happened when Detroit’s rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold was out this week and they had to go to a backup. It was probably the only weak point on the defense. If they have to go back to that, it could be problematic. But development isn’t linear for young players. Williams could have another good game or he could absolutely tank. And neither one would be surprising. This is going to be his first taste of a short week in the NFL, his first taste of Thanksgiving and the national exposure that comes with that. It’s going to be a storyline, how he handles these variables that he’s not experienced before.

QK: On the other side of the ball, Detroit’s offense has seemed almost unstoppable sometimes, running up huge scores. But they are facing a Bears defense that seems to have one of the better, if not best, secondaries in the entire league at the moment. That might make it a bit of a tough challenge for quarterback Jared Goff and his various receivers. How do you see that shaping up?

JR: I think it’s the matchup that’s going to dictate how this game goes. Detroit’s offense is probably the best in franchise history at this point, certainly the best of three really good years under offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. They’re averaging over 30 points a game, we’ve seen them put up at least 40 four times this season, and 50 twice. They are incredibly explosive and incredibly versatile. The beauty of their offense is they can do everything. They can run the smash mouth game and pound it on the ground or they can play the finesse game. They have players that are really good in speed and space and so, you never know what you’re going to get when you’re game planning for this Detroit offense. As good as Chicago’s defense has been, and it’s been very good, they’ve got a lot of continuity there, they’re getting a lot out of talent at all levels, Detroit will have an answer. It’s just a matter of whether they’ll be able to execute. We saw two weeks ago in Jacksonville, that everything Detroit drew up worked to perfection. We saw last week in Indy they looked a little bit clunkier, some good drives, some bad drives. But they still walk away with 24 points. I think if you can score in that ballpark, in the upper 20 points, it’s going to be enough to beat a Chicago offense that just isn’t clicking it near that level this season.

QK: You’ve been covering the team now for a long time. Some Lions fans still have this fear in the back of their minds once in a while that Detroit will get close and then they’re going to just find a way to not have it work. Yet over this last three, four years, suddenly the Lions seem to be one of the best teams in the NFC. In fact, they are maybe the best at the moment, by a lot of experts predictions, as well as the only NFC team that’s never been to the Super Bowl. People talk about “grit” and stuff like that, but to you, what’s really been the change between the Lions being league doormats not that long ago and now maybe favorites for the Super Bowl?

JR: It starts with talent. If you’re not talented enough, you’re going to really struggle. Because in the NFL, the way it’s set up, all the teams are relatively equal in talent. So the margin for error for the Lions was always so small. Every time something minimal went against them, a bad call from an official, a bad bounce, a dropped pass, it was enough to tip the scales in an otherwise balanced game and cause them to lose. Now they’re in the upper echelon of talent and so when they have these things that go against them, which inevitably happens in the course of football, human error is part of the game — whether it’s officiating or other players. You have a game where Jared Goff throws five interceptions and the Lions still win. That’s not enough to derail you? It’s unbelievable.

They’re well coached, they’re aggressive, they’re mentally strong. It just doesn’t seem like anything fazes this team, physically or mentally. They’re very comfortable facing adversity, staring it down and running it over. I understand that mentality of some Lions fans and why it’s lingered for so long. Because this team has hurt you, I don’t know if there’s a better way to put it. But right now is not a mirage.

Last year it became very apparent that this was a good football team. The 2024 Detroit Lions are a better football team. They have more confidence. They know even more what it takes. They went a little bit harder this off-season, added a few more veteran pieces. And they are every bit the Super Bowl contender people think they are. I think you could even call them the Super Bowl favorites. And I know that’s a weird thing to hear, but it is an appropriate and accurate description.

This week brought an end to a bitter conflict between General Motors, a famous racing name and the world’s most prestigious form of auto racing.

Formula 1 approved GM’s bid to enter the globe-spanning series under its Cadillac brand in time for the 2026 season.

The effort and the infrastructure to build the cars came from race team owner Michael Andretti. But F1’s ownership rejected Andretti’s proposed team, leading the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation into whether Formula 1 had violated anti-trust laws.

Now Andretti’s father, legendary racer Mario Andretti, will serve on the Cadillac team’s board of directors.

Mario Andretti told WDET it’s a role he’s become familiar with during the long journey to joining Formula 1.

Listen: Mario Andretti discusses his role with Cadillac Formula 1 team

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Mario Andretti: Nothing is really changing a great deal from the moment that Michael and his partner started this venture. I always was part of it to some degree as far as a sounding board. And that will continue to be so, which is great and it’s very exciting moments for us. We’ve been on this project for quite some time now and, finally, to be given the green light puts a whole new energy into the team. So it was great news.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: What will you be doing as a part of the board of directors?

MA: I’m available to be involved in some decisions where I think I have experience, such as driver choices and some technical issues and so on. Wherever it seems like I could be contributing, I’m there. That’s as simple and as complicated as that.

QK: Your son Michael’s made such an investment in the infrastructure and all the facilities that will be used for the team. Is that going to be the base of where the cars are built?

MA: The objective is to be an all-American team. So the basic car I’m hoping will be built in America. But all of the operational side, once the season starts, will be out of England. But they have a design team in England right now. A lot of the specific details are not really for us to divulge yet, to be honest with you.

QK: Michael put so much into this project. Apart from yourself, is there going to be any mention of the Andretti name in regards to the project?

MA: I don’t know. Probably, if I get arrested, I’m sure my name will be mentioned.

QK: Ha! Apart from that, though?

MA: We’re still involved, whether it’s up front or whatever, it’s still a project that’s very much close to our heart and we’re not going anywhere.

QK: Did it surprise you, the length of time and the seeming contentiousness about getting this whole bid put together?

MA: Well, I really don’t care to go there now. I think, for me, it’s all full steam forward. That’s the objective now. I don’t want to waste any time looking back. It’s all good now and that’s the important part.

QK: I’m talking to you from Detroit, which is the home of General Motors headquarters. It’s going to be the all-American team that you had talked about. But it wasn’t exactly all-American, but Penske Racing had some troubles years ago in Formula 1. The American-owned Haas team now has had periodic difficulties. What do you think sets the Cadillac effort apart from those others?

MA: It’s huge. It’s historic. I think it’s the first time ever that General Motors and the Cadillac brand will be officially involved in Formula 1, which is fabulous for the sport. Fabulous for Formula 1, and it also gives you a lot of confidence about the effort. So this is all good stuff.

QK: It might be a little bit early right now, but do you have your eye at the moment on any drivers you think would fit the team, either experienced or any young Americans?

MA: The driver situation is all-important, as we all know. So a lot of things have been considered. This project started about three years ago, ultimately, so there were a lot of other things that were in place then. And now it’s not going to be on track until 2026. So you have all of 2025 to mull things over and make decisions. But the team is going to field teams in Formula 3 and Formula 2. And that’s going to be where some of the opportunities for, hopefully, some American talents to go there and hone their skills to progress to Formula 1.

QK: What do you think of the series itself right now, Formula One? It’s obviously gotten very popular now in the U.S. But it seems like a single manufacturer has been dominating for a while, whether it be Red Bull or Mercedes or whatever. Do you see a more competitive series coming with the new rule changes in 2026?

MA: I think we have seen that it’s gradually going in that direction. I think the competition has closed up as this season was progressing. And when you’re looking at 2026, it’s going to be a clean sheet of paper with new chassis and power units. So that could probably close the field. But going back to single team domination, that’s nothing new for Formula 1. Historically it’s been there from the beginning, from 1950 on. But the chances of three teams, and maybe even more, potentially being able to win races during a season is real and it’s unprecedented.

QK: How about for yourself? Growing up and watching Formula 1 and winning the world championship in 1978, as well as making such a name in U.S. racing, obviously. Is it almost like a full circle thing to come now to where you’re going to be part of a team that’s there?

MA: I guess you can call it that way, full circle. Being part of a team was never my ultimate ambition. My ambition was always driving. But I think Michael has shown me something different. When he stepped out of the cockpit he wanted to continue in ownership. Now, actual, real ownership was something that never really appealed to me. But to be part of it, something that started with Michael being involved, I welcome that opportunity and I’ve been invited to stay on, and I will.

A Michigan Congressman is proposing legislation to end normal trade relations with China.

U.S Rep. John Moolenaar chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Moolenaar says fighting the security threat posed by the U.S. adversary is one of the few issues that bring Democrats and Republicans together in Congress.

Listen: U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar discusses concerns about the CCP

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar: We’re going to work to prevent the CCP from stealing our technology, co-opting businesses, harassing the American people, and pressuring us into compliance. President Trump has made some important appointments. Michael Waltz, who is the new national security advisor for the president, is very serious about addressing the threats China presents. And we look forward to closely collaborating.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: The president-elect has talked a lot about putting tariffs on various products. China officials have said that they are rushing, it seems, to get semi-conductor production up and going even more in their country. The Biden administration had pushed to make a domestic supply chain for that. What do you think the U.S. policy should be in regards to that? And do you have any fears if there are tariffs being applied that a kind of a trade war erupts between China and the U.S.?

JM: In a sense, China has been initiating a trade war with the United States for many years. They’ve been violating various trade rules and I believe it’s time that we revoked the permanent normal trade relationship status that China has enjoyed for the last two and a half decades. And because of the violations that they’ve incurred, I do believe tariffs are a very reasonable approach, specifically targeted at addressing E-sectors and areas of technology where we need to rebuild our supply chain resilience. And make sure that we are not furthering our dependence on China.

QK: One of the concerns some people have had is the use of TikTok. It also seems that now President-elect Trump seems to be kind of a fan of TikTok, which you had not seemed to be in in the past. When you look at views that you and the President have regarding that, do you see that those will be able to mesh?

JM: I do. And I think President Trump has had long standing concerns about the CCP’s control of TikTok. And in our legislation we did not ban TikTok. What we said is that TikTok needs to be severed from its owner ByteDance, which is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, and to divest from TikTok. And my hope is that President Trump will use the fact that we have a law in place now that requires that divestiture as a way to negotiate in a way that an American company may have the opportunity to take TikTok over and provide this forum in a way that would be safer for the American people and free from adversarial control.

QK: Have you had any discussions with Trump or some of his people in regards to TikTok or any of the other Chinese matters?

JM: That will be an ongoing discussion. Right now there are some issues that are being resolved in the courts. And there is a deadline of Jan. 19 where TikTok must be sold. There also is a provision where the president can delay that if negotiations are occurring in a productive way. So it gives the president a lot of flexibility to work on this and hopefully find an American buyer or at least a friendly nation — one that’s not China, Russia, North Korea or Iran.

QK: When the leader of China, President Xi Jinping, met a while back with Biden, he outlined what he was calling “red lines” in the relationship between the U.S. and China. Issues like the status with Taiwan, democracy or human rights, China’s own system and what he called China’s rights to development. When you look at those red lines, what’s your view of how he sets that out?

JM: It’s interesting how he frames things. He will talk about Taiwan as something where he feels they have a legitimate right to take over Taiwan by force if necessary. We view that very differently. Taiwan is a free island nation, a Democratic free island that is a huge part of the world economy. And the idea that Xi Jinping thinks he can just take it over to me is a very dangerous provocation on his part. They have promised in the past things like in Hong Kong, that they would have one China but two systems. But political dissenters have been thrown into prison; Jimmy Lai, who is someone from the media who spoke out for democracy, is in prison. So they are putting their political adversaries in prison. It’s very difficult to view what Xi Jinping says as having integrity. So my goal would be to do everything we can to deter aggression with respect to Taiwan. And also make sure that we keep the rule of law, the status quo, in the South China Sea and other areas where China is threatening our allies like the Philippines and Japan. Make sure that they don’t continue to instigate further destruction.

QK: Trump has said in regards to Taiwan that he thinks the country should pay the U.S. for helping provide its defense. What’s your view of that?

JM: Well, again, President Trump is a strong negotiator. I think there’s very strong agreement that Taiwan needs to strengthen its force, its defenses, and its posture to help protect itself from aggression from mainland China. President Reagan talked about “Peace through strength,” and I believe we must display American strength when it comes to our relationship with China. A big part of that is arming Taiwan so that they can defend themselves and that Xi Jinping realizes it is a very unattractive option for him to try and take Taiwan by force. I think what President Trump is doing, similar to what he did with NATO allies, is encourage them to participate more in funding their own defense. And we can be part of that by selling them arms, by helping them equip themselves. But they really need to step up their game. And they are. I’m encouraged by the progress they’re making.

In 2022, the election in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District — which includes southern Macomb County, Rochester and Rochester Hills — was the third-closest U.S. House race in the nation.

This year features a rematch between first-term Republican Congressman John James and Democratic challenger Carl Marlinga.

But the big difference this time is that the contest is taking place during an extremely tight presidential election.

Related: Michigan’s 10th Congressional District candidates answer questions about their political priorities

Incumbent James says he’s fighting for manufacturing

At a recent meeting of the Detroit Economic Club, the conversation centered on the candidates for the White House. And the announcers brought up an unusual choice for a potential future presidential contender.

“There is a guy in the audience who maybe should take it. And his name’s John James. Ready for that John?”

From the audience, a lone voice said definitively, “No!”

James is already busy on the campaign trail — defending the U.S. House seat he won by only 0.5 percentage points two years ago.

He says he’s doing it by supporting the major manufacturing base in his district, where a majority of voters twice chose Donald Trump. And on the House floor, James echoed the former president’s charge that Democrats are pushing regulations that would force automakers to build electric vehicles — a market they say is already dominated by China.

“I’d like to remind my colleagues that you don’t fight communism with communism,” James said. “And that’s exactly what this government takeover of our American automotive industry is. Nobody here is against battery electric vehicles. But we are against telling the American people what they can do with their money and when they can do it.”

James led the House effort to block the new standards.

The former combat pilot, who features an attack helicopter on his campaign logo, says he’s also done battle to protect two of the district’s mainstays: Selfridge Air National Guard Base and the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM).

“I’m doing everything I can to make sure that we not only get a fighter mission here but we also get future missions here,” James said. “The economic impact that would happen from the closure of Selfridge would be devastating to the region. I got $75 million back in investment for TACOM just this past year. And so, I have been busy.”

James also delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention that criticized transgender women playing in women’s sports.

He’s leaned into a controversial campaign ad that ties James’ congressional opponent to a legal requirement that the government provide gender-affirming care to prisoners, as well as possibly provide information to children who want to know more about transitioning.

“No approaching children with gender-changing medication or inappropriate sexual material in the first, second and third grade, right? If you’re an adult in a free country and you’re not hurting anybody else, do you. But if you are talking about the children, we have a duty to make sure we protect the rights of parents and be pro-family.”

Challenger Marlinga says he knows the law and the district

Marlinga says he has no idea why the issue is even a topic in the 10th Congressional District campaign.

“It sounds like a bad Saturday Night Live spoof. If you’re a teacher, you know that you can’t give an aspirin to a child without the parent’s consent.”

As a former judge and prosecutor, Marlinga says he knows the law.

And he says Macomb County voters know him and his record, even if national Democratic Party officials did not when they basically ignored his congressional run two years ago.

Former Congressman Andy Levin declined to seek reelection in the newly redrawn district.

Marlinga says party officials believed if someone with the beloved name “Levin” thought they couldn’t win there, no Democrat could.

That changed after Marlinga almost won in 2022. Now, Democrats are pouring millions of dollars into the race.

That includes distributing flyers daily that counter one of James’ arguments against Marlinga that the former prosecutor once called the district’s auto plants part of a “dying industry.”

Marlinga says he was calling for car companies and parts suppliers to reinvent themselves for the 21st century.

“The auto supply business is decreased because of the way that cars are made nowadays,” he said. “The little dials and things that you would put on your dashboard, all of those are gone. It’s replaced by chips and computer screens. And so I would want to see more and more chip business here.”

Marlinga maintains he’s also a firm believer in electric vehicles and using clean energy sources.

He calls it a far better way to help the economy than trying to, as Trump often says, “Drill baby drill” for more fossil fuels.

“If the price of oil and gas goes up, the price of everything else goes up. We have to diversify our energy sources so that there’s enough of a threat from electric power to cause the oil and gas companies to finally realize that they can’t set the price wherever they want,” Marlinga said.

Voters’ views reveal a very tight contest

The Democratic challenger’s argument resonates with autoworker Eric McCrary.

He says he works at an electric vehicle plant, though he prefers hybrids himself.

But McCrary adds that after 30 years in the car industry, he also prefers Marlinga’s take on the district’s signature business.

“He already had my vote before I met him,” McCrary said. “I know John James. And every time there’s a Republican in the government I lose money. For some reason there’s not a whole lot of overtime, there’s not a lot of things going on in the plant. They run straight 40 hours.”

But there’s a much more mixed reaction in other parts of Macomb, like at the Dodge Park Coney Island in Sterling Heights, where political conversation almost comes with the menu.

Sitting in a booth with her husband, long-time voter Penny Dobbs says she and the rest of her half-dozen family members support James.

Dobbs says she worries about automakers making a major move towards electric vehicles.

“At first I was excited about it because I thought ‘jobs.’ We’re gonna get a lot more factories to build these batteries. But then I thought about power outages. Where you gonna go if you run out of energy in your car? So I am surprised at Marlinga’s view. And because of it he’s losing six votes,” Dobbs said.

A few tables away, Tracy Daniel says she’s always had concerns about excessive government spending.

And then, Daniel says, she saw James’ TV advertisements linking Marlinga to gender-change operations.

“I believe our medical insurance coverage will end up being affected in a really big way as cost if we start paying for transgender surgeries and things like that,” Daniel said. “That’s gonna affect people as a whole. If this stuff is true, that they will pay for it for people in prison and what have you, than that means taxpayers again have to pay for that. It’s all a trickle-down effect for me.”

But across the aisle, diner John Zuzga says he simply does not trust Republicans.

And he says he knows Marlinga very well.

“Carl Marlinga put me in jail. But I still like him, I’ll still vote for him,” Zuzga said.

Which side the rest of the electorate will support remains uncertain.

Just like the presidential election it often echoes, surveys show the race in the 10th Congressional District is still too close to call.

The special counsel in the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump released a report weeks ago that held extra significance for officials in Detroit.

It concerned a contentious time for Detroit poll workers who counted the 2020 presidential election results in what was then the TCF Center.

A crowd of Republican observers at the center grew increasingly angry as false rumors of voting fraud spread across social media. And, according to Special Counsel Jack Smith, a Trump campaign employee told operatives on the scene of the unrest to “make them riot.”

Now, four years later, Detroit election officials say they’re determined to avoid a repeat of the chaos that engulfed poll workers.

Fraud claims lit a chaotic fuse

The tinderbox at the former TCF Center came back into focus during a recent rally for the Harris campaign in downtown Detroit.

In the center now known as Huntington Place, former President Barack Obama told the crowd to vote early — in part because of what happened inside that building four years ago.

“The day after the 2020 election, thousands of mail ballots were being counted right here in this convention center,” Obama reminded the crowd. “And protestors came down, banged on the windows shouting,  ‘Let us in! Stop the count!’ Poll workers inside were being intimidated.”

The scene became one of the centerpieces of Trump’s false narrative that the 2020 election was rigged against him.

“In Detroit there were hours of unexplained delay in delivering many of the votes for counting. The final batch did not arrive until four in the morning. And nobody knew where they came from,” Trump said.

But officials in charge of tabulating those election results counter that no one asked at the time why those ballots arrived so late.

Detroit Elections Department COO Daniel Baxter says he could have supplied the answer.

He supervised poll workers who had to wade through more than 170,000 absentee ballots, about two-thirds of all the votes cast in the city.

“You gotta remember we were in the middle of the pandemic. Nobody wanted to go to the polls on election day, so they opted to vote by absentee,” Baxter said. “And some of them were a little slower than others in terms of getting them delivered. And that is exactly what you experienced at three o’clock, four o’clock in the morning.”

But as the vote-counting wore on, the situation deteriorated.

Hundreds of people had converged on the convention center.

Some poll challengers demanded election workers’ political and religious affiliations. One poll watcher even threatened violence.

It escalated when the hall reached full capacity and certain challengers were ordered to leave, and Baxter was in the middle of it all.

“I heard banging on the windows. I heard chanting, ‘Stop the count! Stop the count! It was a hairy moment,” he said.

Baxter said it was hard for those counting votes to keep from being distracted. And then things got worse.

“Someone made the bad call of putting cardboard up on the windows. When I discovered that, I made sure it was removed,” Baxter said. “I got on the microphone and explained to our staff, all of our poll workers, that we were not going to stop counting until the last ballot was delivered here.”

Shrinking a site and increasing security

After the near riot, those who game planned for the next presidential contest hardened their resolve to protect poll workers, says the official who oversees all of Detroit’s elections, City Clerk Janice Winfrey.

“We got through 2020 when all of that happened, the threats and the hurling insults at election workers. And it wasn’t expected. So now we know that may happen and we are ready if it should happen,” Winfrey said.

That includes the implementation of new security procedures designed to block any Election Day upheavals at Huntington Place.

Officials moved the central polling location to the enclosed, cavernous Hall A, on the opposite end of the center from where votes were tallied in 2020.

Baxter says there won’t be any banging on windows at Hall A.

“There’s no windows. And if you do not have credentials you cannot be inside in any area. Those folk who decide to be present for protests or whatever, the Detroit Police Department has designated an area where they can be.”

Baxter says the new location is also a smaller and more secure space than its 2020 counterpart. He says it’s usable because Michigan now allows Detroit to tabulate absentee ballots more than a week ahead of Election Day.

That means fewer workers are needed for each shift because the vote-counting is spread across numerous days.

“We only have 50 tables for processing. In 2020 we had 134 tables. That made for more people, more challengers, more poll workers,” Baxter said. “Now at the table you have 300 ballots that you have to process, versus 3,000 ballots in 2020.”

There are also magnetometers guarding the doorways.

Media, poll workers and challengers must swipe a drivers’ card, a state ID or some other form of identification to get credentials.

And Baxter says officials will keep track of how many people get in.

“A digitized check-in system will contain a maximum number for each group and organization. Once we max out on that number no one will be allowed entry, whether it’s the Democrat Party, the Republican Party, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters or whoever they are,” he said.

The need to harden infrastructure as well as resolve became glaringly apparent in 2022.

Winfrey notes there was an incident at a building roughly four miles away from Huntington Place, where a GOP challenger confronted a deputy clerk in an alley behind the Elections Department.

“All of our windows on the first floor of our building has been replaced with bulletproof glass,” she said. “We have uniformed and plain-clothed officers. And the alleyway is now blocked off.”

Winfrey and Baxter estimate with early voting this year, workers will tabulate about 90% of Detroit’s ballots by early evening on Election Day.

That means poll workers should be able to leave the convention center much earlier than in 2020, shielding them, officials hope, from any disruptions by angry poll challengers.

The general election is taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. For the latest election information, visit WDET’s Voter Guide at wdet.org/voterguide.

The economy. Immigration. Reproductive rights.

These are just a few of the issues presidential candidates regularly raise while campaigning in the battleground state of Michigan.

But how are they playing with the state’s electorate?

Voters in the metro Detroit region mirror some of those same concerns. Yet some have other policies they’d like to see addressed — and a wide range of views on which a potential new occupant of the White House might be the best one to take those issues on.

The economy 

For Keith Rowe, housing is the name of his game. He works in the mortgage industry and finds his sales hinge on having what he calls a “healthy” economy.

“It’s been absolutely brutal compared to five or six years ago, putting mortgage loans out for people, homes being absolutely unaffordable,” Rowe said.

He blames government regulation.

“It tends to choke the life out of business with fees and unnecessary oversight and rules that really get in the way of the people that it was meant to protect,” Rowe said.

Voter Ricardo Copeland claims it’s not just the government regulations, it’s the political party in charge of making them.

“As soon as the Democrats got in office, that’s when everything shot up,” he said.

Selling items at a recent Trump rally in Warren, Copeland praised the Republican presidential nominees’ plan to cut corporate taxes.

“You don’t tax the rich, you give the rich tax breaks. That’s when everything comes down. You don’t tax the bakers, you don’t tax the farmers, you don’t tax General Motors. Because McDonald’s is not going to take the hit. They’re going to put it on their Happy Meal, they’re going to put that on the consumer. Give them tax breaks. They hire people.”

Detroit senior Ayanna Johnson is not worried about being hired. She says she lives off of Social Security. And she’s worried about losing it under a new Republican administration.

“Trump gets in office and he’s talking about taking it away. What are people going to do? Where they’re going to go? I’m a lot leery,” she said.

Johnson adds that, in her opinion, the former president should not even be in the current election conversation.

“I think those ‘powers that be’ have gotten scared of Trump. He should be in jail. He got convicted. He incited that riot on Jan. 6. That’s unheard of,” she said. “We have protests, we have issues. But nobody as long as I can remember has ever done something like that in the nation’s capitol.”

Back at the Trump rally in Warren, William Going recites the GOP candidate’s pledge to “Drill baby drill” for fossil fuels in the U.S.

Going attributes the high price of groceries in gas to the Biden administration’s push for more clean energy sources.

“I would love to see where we’re actually exporting oil instead of importing oil. That’s why gas was so cheap when Trump was president,” Going said. “And then shipping costs, that’s the gas price again. If gas goes up, shipping goes up. If shipping goes up, the cost of items goes up. If the cost of items goes up, the cost of labor goes up. It’s not rocket science.”

Small business

“It seems like the more I make, the less I’m getting,” said Delano Shorter, who owns a small cleaning business.

He says he’s not just dealing with high prices at the grocery store, he’s fighting to keep his company from going under.

“Inflation is out of control. Even after they say that it’s going down, it’s not. These prices for cleaning supplies go up more and more, every year. With it being more expensive, I have to charge my clients more because of the inflation of my products that I’ll have to use,” Shorter said.

But beautician Christina Brothern sees a silver lining for her salon business in the policies Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris promises to pursue.

“She’s about small businesses. She’s about people and not just organizations. She’s about your health. My daughter is pre-diabetic. Kamala’s about insulin, about helping the people that can’t afford it because it’s so expensive. She’s about helping the people, the minorities that don’t make that much money, actually live,” she said.

Immigration and war

Clarkston resident Anna Johnson originally came to Michigan from Mexico.

She says she applauds Trump’s vow to launch a massive deportation effort if he regains the White House.

“I came to this country legally. I follow the steps. I pay money to become a legal citizen,” Johnson said. “And when I see on the TV, literally, an open border, that just breaks my heart. It’s almost like a slap on the face to me. I have to follow the procedures, I have to fill out the forms, go through clearance to make sure that I was a good person, a safe person to be living in this country.”

Housing specialist Alex Alexander also has her eyes on what’s happening outside the U.S.

She says for her, it’s the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon swaying her vote.

And Alexander says she’s not happy with either the response by the U.S. to the situation or the pledges made along the presidential campaign trail.

“I was hoping to have some candidates that were a little bit more pro-Palestinian,” Alexander said. “In my opinion, Kamala Harris had a shining perfect storm opportunity to be in opposition to the war, or at least opposition to sending resources to Israel, right as she got the nomination. And she didn’t, which means that her interests lie elsewhere. I’m not a huge fan of that.”

At a gas station in Roseville, a man who gives his name only as Billy Bee says he’s equally unhappy.

But he’s concerned about protests over the Biden administration’s support for Israel, even though he says he has relatives that have been displaced because of the ongoing warfare.

“All these people protesting amounts to nothing at the end of the day,” he said. “I tell my own people from Lebanon that if you don’t like it, then leave (the U.S.) Bring me a Palestinian that can point out which life one of the protesters saved. There’s nothing.”

Detroiter Savannah Robbins disagrees.

She says her top issues are the conflict in Gaza and whether Donald Trump becomes the future architect of U.S. policy in the region.

“I fear Donald Trump being president again and what that would do to our democracy,” Robbins said. “Women’s right to choose abortion access, trans people’s right to health care, I’m worried about all of it. I feel like Donald Trump is intent on destroying democracy one step at a time, whether it’s him or it’s the masterminds behind Project 2025.”

The road to uncertainty

Along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, Uber driver Dennis Custovic guides his car over several potholes.

He says his conversations with passengers convinced him there’s an especially rough road for one particular segment of the U.S. populace.

“My major issue right now is we have more poor people than ever. I talk to people all the time and we need to help the poor in any type of way, affordable housing, getting better pay, secure jobs. It’s kind of like a hit or miss,” he said.

Custovic’s hands tightened on his steering wheel just a bit as he considered which of the major party contenders for the White House might best address poverty.

“You’ve got a vice president mentioning the middle class, that she is from the middle class. So many promises, but nothing is happening under Biden. And she’s in the chair, she’s the vice president. She should be more aware of what can be done,” he said.

Custovic frowned as he navigated both the traffic and his choices for president.

“And then on the other side, you have Trump. He is a businessman but he’s a silly fellow. At the same time, I’m kind of scared of him. Why? Because he say things that don’t make no sense. In many occasions he’s attacking certain groups of people. So I don’t really know. You know, it’s tough. It’s tough.”

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

The latest polling continues to show a statistical dead-heat in the presidential race across political battleground states like Michigan.

Surveys also reveal the chief concern for most voters remains the state of the economy and the high cost of living.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have each touted their vision for the economy during recent campaign stops in Michigan.

At a town hall in Warren last Friday, former Trump claimed he would use a combination of tariffs and corporate tax breaks to protect U.S. jobs.

“You have to elect a person with business talent and common sense, and this whole thing is going to turn around very quickly,” Trump said.

Trump also made a stop at FALK, a manufacturing company in West Michigan, to promote his economic recovery plan. Harris counters that Trump’s tax plan could push the economy towards a recession.

At a recent town hall in Oakland County with Oprah Winfrey, Harris said she will work to stop what she calls “price gouging” by companies, and provide loans for small business start-ups and first-time home buyers.

One of the signature accomplishments of Trump’s term was the U.S. Mexico-Canada trade agreement that replaced NAFTA — a deal United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain says is bad for autoworkers.

“Donald Trump wants to spin this that he fixed NAFTA. He didn’t fix anything. He made it worse,” Fain said. “The deficits and the trade imbalance grew worse under Trump’s NAFTA.”

A report by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that the yearly trade deficit increased by about $200 billion from 2016 to 2020.

In a statement released last Thursday, Harris said she wanted a full review of the deal when it comes up in 2026.

Drumming up union support

Winning over auto workers — and union members — has been a top priority for both Harris and Trump during the 2024 election cycle.

Many unions — including the United Auto Workers — have endorsed Harris, though strong support for Trump by the Teamsters’ rank-and-file likely led to the leadership deciding not to make an endorsement. The inaction has been celebrated as a win for the Trump campaign.

Trump — and other Republicans — have referred to federal environmental rules surrounding fuel economy standards as an “electric vehicle mandate”.

That’s something that rankles Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters.

“Well, let’s be clear, there’s not a mandate on electric vehicles. People will be free to choose the vehicles that they would like, but we also have to make electric vehicles because we are in global competition for the next generation of vehicles and the future of the auto industry, which is electric,” Peters said.

A study from J.D. Power and Associates found EV sales make up about 9% of all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S.

And a recent report from NPR showed that the Americans who are most skeptical about the environmental benefits of EVs, also tend to be the people who worry the least about the climate.

Trump has stated that EVs will kill the American auto industry — though he did soften his stance a bit after being supported by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. During Friday’s town hall event, Trump vowed to increase the use of oil and gas reserves and levy heavy tariffs on foreign products to help drive energy costs down.

A new study published this week found people with asthma have an especially hard time breathing properly in Detroit.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America rated the Motor City the third worst municipality in the nation for those who routinely need to use an inhaler or nebulizer.

The foundations’ president, Kenneth Mendez, says the group weighed how many people in a city have asthma, how frequently people die from it and the number of times the condition drives residents to visit an emergency room.

“Detroit ranks high in those three areas and that’s one of the reasons why it’s No. 3 on the list.”

– Kenneth Mendez, president of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America

Listen: New report ranks Detroit as third worst city in U.S. for those with asthma

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Kenneth Mendez: Detroit ranks high in those three areas and that’s one of the reasons why it’s No. 3 on the list. There’s social determinants of health, there’s family origins related to it, but certainly it really hits communities of color. Black Americans are three times more likely to be diagnosed with asthma, five times more likely to be treated in an emergency room. And Black women have the highest mortality rate of any gender or ethnic group. So those factors really are emblematic of things that we need to do in order to better control our asthma and work with our doctors.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Are those demographic groups especially at risk because they have less access to good health care? Or because the factories or whatever might produce pollution that could exacerbate asthma happen to be based in communities of color or poorer areas?

KM: There are a number of factors that go into it. Clearly, your zip code, where you live, has an impact. You can tell how long someone’s gonna live from that. But access to care, additional pollution in certain areas is a trigger for asthma. People in some communities can’t afford to live in areas that do not have high levels of pollution. Those are the kinds of things that go into asthma exacerbation and triggers if you have asthma.

QK: Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Talib, for one, has long pushed to get the Environmental Protection Agency to take into account the cumulative impact of pollution in a given area if they’re going to issue a permit through the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts. If that kind of legislation was passed, do you think it would really make a difference?

KM: Let me break that into two pieces. One is, I think the laws and policies will help. The EPA has come out with a “tailpipe rule” to reduce emissions from light trucks and cars, which are significant contributors to bad air and carbon dioxide. So I think having pieces of legislation passed, whether they’re at the federal or at the state level, can be very helpful to those with asthma. For example, in local communities, you can have an idling rule on school grounds basically saying when people are picking up their children, they shouldn’t have their cars idling. Reducing those kind of tailpipe emissions can go a long way towards helping people with asthma and allergies, in particular in some of those communities that are disproportionately impacted.

In the big picture, the longer growing seasons, the additional carbon dioxide, all those things have an impact on allergies. And allergies are a trigger for asthma. Those are the things that through federal policies and legislation we can try and eliminate. The Inflation Reduction Act clearly had some incentives to reduce pollution and try and amplify clean energy alternatives. So those kinds of things can make a difference. Climate change, with the longer growing seasons, more intense releases of pollen because of carbon dioxide, are all triggers for allergies and asthma. A lot of people say, ‘I’ve never had allergies before. They’re getting a lot worse.’ And that’s because of the additional load on your system from those triggers. We need to reduce our carbon footprint. That will go a long way towards reducing asthma and allergies.

One of the worst parts of World War II is coming to metro Detroit this month. And it’s scheduled to keep coming into January.

Each week about 25 semi-trucks will haul low-level radioactive waste from New York to a disposal site in Wayne County’s Van Buren township.

It’s by-products from the Manhattan Project, which created the atomic bombs dropped in Japan that ended World War II.

It’s also the latest in a series of toxic material shipments sent to Michigan raising concerns among some members of Congress and other officials.

That includes Wayne County Executive Warren Evans. He says there’s a disconnect between federal agencies that regulate hazardous waste, the company that owns the Van Buren disposal site and Michigan’s government.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that we would be the location of choice so often for this toxic material.”

-Wayne County Executive Warren Evans

Listen: Warren Evans on toxic atomic waste coming to Wayne County

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Warren Evans: I don’t believe that they level with us about what they’re doing. My trust level for them is almost zero. And it doesn’t lead to good results or good communications back and forth. The only time we hear about these waste issues is when a reporter writes a story and we read about it and they become automatically defensive. I’m concerned about the lack of notice (that shipments are coming to Michigan.) That leads me to be concerned about the level of hazardous waste in the material and the amount that’s coming and how it’s being transported.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: The Army Corps of Engineers has said they’re not required to notify anybody if they’re sending waste to a facility that’s allowed to take those kinds of shipments, which the one in Van Buren is. So when you say you don’t think that they’re leveling with you, what do you think needs to be changed?

WE: They said they’re not “required” to. What the heck does that mean? Does it mean there’s a prohibition about doing it? They’re hiding behind a rule that doesn’t require them to do it. But good public policy does require them to do it, them or somebody, I think. Hiding behind a rule that doesn’t make you do it just tells me the rule doesn’t make any sense and you’re not concerned about the reaction of the public’s health concerns about this. If that’s the way you feel, then I’m troubled by the whole thing.

QK: You’ve had a couple of town hall meetings about this and other toxic waste that came from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment. What are you hearing from residents about the situations?

WE: It’s real clear that residents don’t want it here. And what we hear from the federal agencies is how safe they claim to be and what the rules and federal regulations are. That’s not what people are asking for. They are asking for clear answers about why so much of it is coming here and just how safe is it? It’s troubling to me, because the agencies are answering questions in a very bureaucratic way. “This is regulation 207 and we’re required to do that.” It’s double-speak to me. People are asking about the health concerns that they have, the health concerns that they’re afraid of in the future. They are asking for solid, honest answers. Part of that would be alleviated if there was more discussion about the actual hazardous waste, the toxicity of it, how it’s being transported and how it is being kept in the landfill. That would help people determine whether the safety valves are there or not there. When you hear the agencies talk about it, they say they have a stellar track record for keeping us safe. And every year you hear about catastrophes that occur and violations that occur at these different waste treatment places. Those two notions don’t square in my mind or the minds of anybody else that has any sense.

QK: So you still have some concerns when state environmental officials say that they’ve tested this latest waste coming from the Manhattan Project, that it’s within the limits that the site is permitted to take? And there’s only seven similar sites in the country, so you just gotta grit your teeth and bear with it?

WE: Yeah but that doesn’t really make sense. There’s a significant amount of it that’s coming and there’s certainly no legal prohibition against dividing it into some different landfills. Why does it all have to come here? Particularly since the waste is rated at a level that would allow it to go to many other landfills — and many other landfills that are closer to New York than here. They can talk all day about how this landfill provides added security. But if the waste is rated low enough that it can go just about anywhere, then why don’t you send it just about anywhere?

QK: I have heard that it was somewhat cheaper to dispose of it in landfills here as opposed to other places. Have you heard that same reasoning?

WE: Absolutely. And I think that that, in and of itself, calls for a state solution. It appears to me that there are two solutions that we ought to be working on as a community. One is, we ought to act legislatively, get our legislature to refuse to take it. In other words, change the rules about Michigan being able to take the hazardous waste. That’s why it’s coming out of New York, New York won’t take it. That’s one option. That’s a pretty drastic one, but a significant one. The other one is to raise the tipping fees such that it is not so profitable for those who want to deliver the waste here. I think both of those are solutions that bear some close scrutiny and, I think, support.

There are many states that are less populated than Michigan. Wayne County is the largest by population county in the state of Michigan. It doesn’t make sense to me that we would be the location of choice so often for this toxic material. Nobody wants it. There’s no financial advantage to the county for accepting it. The disadvantages are creating a further health care risk. And we’re already rated poorly in the state of Michigan in terms of health indicators.

There likely was no busier man at last week’s Democratic National Convention than transplanted Michigander Pete Buttigieg.

The U.S. transportation secretary stresses he’s using his personal time to campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket — and he seemed to be the go-to spokesperson for the media.

Buttigieg, who was on the list of potential Harris running mates, is viewed by some pundits as a possible gubernatorial candidate when Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited out after 2026.

But Buttigieg says he’s focusing now on helping Democrats maintain the enthusiasm shown at the convention all the way through to Election Day.

Listen: Buttigieg says Dems will ‘bottle’ energy from DNC to propel presidential ticket

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Pete Buttigieg: We’ve got many, long weeks ahead. But what we’re going to do is we’re going to take the joy and the positive energy [from the convention], we’re going to bottle it up and we’re going to use it to propel us through the weeks ahead. Of course, on every campaign there are curveballs, there are setbacks. Although I do think it is notable that in the many weeks since Kamala Harris became our candidate, she hasn’t put a foot wrong. People kept saying, “Is this the honeymoon? You know, this is a few days, then it gets real.” The energy has been sustained. The momentum has been sustained. But as she keeps reminding us, we still need to remember that this is an underdog effort.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Any concerns about the protests regarding Israel and Gaza at the convention and whether or not that could actually have a significant impact on the campaign going forward?

PB: That’s one more point of difference between us and the Trump-Vance ticket. Not just the approach she has, to bringing peace to the Middle East, but also the approach she’s bringing to engaging protesters and demonstrators. She’s reaching out to those parts of our party that are so concerned. Versus this idea you hear from Trump about basically turning the military on protesters. We understand the legitimate concerns of those who have spoken out and will continue to engage.

QK: When you talk to voters about what their number one issue is, there still seems to be a lot of worries about the economy. You obviously have a big background in the Midwest, as well as with issues like infrastructure and so on. What do you see that a Harris administration could do that a Trump administration would not, in terms of trying to help lower prices, etc?

PB: The biggest concern in the economy is around prices. And economists who have analyzed the Trump plan believe it will add $3,900 a year to a family’s expenses, because he wants to add all these additional charges (tariffs) on imported goods. You contrast that with the Harris plan that’s very focused on lowering costs. Also, if we want to talk about economic performance, let’s talk about jobs. There was a manufacturing recession under Trump, and that’s even before COVID. Right now, there’s a manufacturing boom the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades. A construction boom as well, because the infrastructure policies that Trump failed to deliver, this administration has. These are the kinds of things that are explaining why you’ve had in these last few years the most job creation in any presidency in history. Now we’ve got to pair that with continued work to drive prices and inflation back to baseline. And that’s exactly what you’re seeing right now.

QK: How do you make voters feel that? I hear people recite the data and then people say, “Well, I’m not really feeling that in my own house.”

PB: We got to meet folks where they are. This is a real concern, you can’t wave it away. That’s exactly why Harris is being criticized now for being too aggressive in trying to bring prices down. But I think that’s the right kind of focus that demonstrates concern for what voters are feeling. We also, though, need to make sure that there’s no attempt to rewrite history and have people forget about the manufacturing recession and other problems that happened during the Trump years.

QK: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer campaigned on “fixing the damn roads.” You’ve been a Michigan resident for a while now. She is term limited out after 2026. Would you think about running for governor yourself?

PB: I sincerely am not sure what the future holds for me. I’ve got the best job right now and, of course, I’m not speaking in that capacity. But I also am having the best time when I’m not at my day job, campaigning for a ticket and a party that I really believe in. Between the two, those things are taking about 120% of my capacity.

QK: Are you really having the best time? It’s so politically divided now it seems like it would just be hell at times to deal with from the inside.

PB: Well, look, it’s hard work, but it’s hard work that’s worth doing. I believe in politics as a force that, if you understand it in the right way, can make our lives better. As I shared with the convention audience, I recognize the fact that the simple existence of my family — just what goes on at our dinner table — is only possible because of political involvement, political courage and political action that brought about things like marriage equality. Whatever the biggest issue is that’s affecting somebody’s life, chances are it either gets better or worse depending on the political choices we make. Of course it’s hard. But that doesn’t mean it has to be a death match. And part of why I think Americans are ready to change the channel away from the Trump show, part of why folks are just more and more tired of that, is that most Americans don’t view the political process as something that has to be all about negativity and grievance and revenge. It can be a process of engaging our neighbors, and of course it’ll be tough sometimes, but it can also be really uplifting.

It’s really great speaking to the Michigan audience, in particular, because that’s where the infrastructure and the manufacturing results of the Biden-Harris vision are not just playing out, but very much at stake. The job creation and the clean energy economy that’s bringing back so many blue collar jobs in the industrial Midwest, that will either be developed or it will be destroyed, depending on who the next administration is led by. I want to make sure it’s developed so we create even more jobs.

Use the media player above to listen to the interview with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

President Biden personally thanked more than 100 members of the U.S. government earlier this month for their help in negotiating the recent prisoner exchange with Russia.

The massive deal brought Michigan native Paul Whelan back to the U.S after being held in Russia since the end of 2018 on charges of espionage that both he and federal officials say are bogus.

Some experts believe the exchange could set a model for how nations engage in such so-called “hostage diplomacy” in the future.

Northwestern University Assistant Professor Danielle Gilbert works with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on matters concerning wrongful detentions.

She says duplicating the kind of deal that gained Whelan’s release will not be easy.

Listen: Why the deal that freed Whelan, Gershkovich may be hard to duplicate

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Danielle Gilbert: These are extremely difficult negotiations. Not only are we talking about some of the fiercest adversaries that have to come to the table to come to an agreement in terms of the United States and Russia; but also the challenge of bringing together all of these other parties, getting other governments to agree to put their own prisoners on the line to participate in this complex multi-party swap. This was extremely advanced negotiation that took place at the highest levels of government over the course of quite some time. And that all of it was held as such a tight secret until the actual release was also pretty spectacular.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: There are reports that Germany wanted Putin opponent Alexei Navalny as part of any deal that would include Whelan in exchange for a Russian assassin that was held by Germany. And then Navalny passed away a few days after the deal was supposedly struck. Yet it seemed Germany’s willingness to make a deal continued and that seemed to open the pathway to the eventual exchange. Does it surprise you that Germany would actually, finally partake in such an effort?

DG: Vladimir Putin and his government continually pushed for the release of Vadim Krasikov, the FSB assassin who was imprisoned in Germany for murder. But the United States government didn’t have the power to release Krasikov, that was something that was only up to Chancellor Scholz and the government of Germany. So that took some really difficult conversations behind the scenes. President Biden was drawing on the friendship and the alliance with Germany, speaking to Chancellor Scholz and representatives at the highest level of the German government. And not only about the importance of their alliance, their partnership and friendship with the U.S. and opposition to what Russia was doing in this particular case, but also ensuring that the ultimate deal — the prisoner swap — included Russian dissidents, political opponents to Vladimir Putin. That those people would be released from detention and they’d be able to come to Germany. Countries like the United States and its Western democratic partners and allies are being targeted by autocratic states like Russia.

QK: Beyond the number of nations involved in the swap, the sheer multitude of prisoners involved in the exchange seems to be far different from what one would normally think of in a hostage deal, which is sterotypically a one-for-one prisoner swap. Do you think similar hostage deals that could happen in the future are also likely going to have to include many, many more countries and in effect “enlarge the pie” of what is being offered in any exchange?

DG: It’s a great question. It remains to be seen. I think in past prisoner swaps with Russia, we really have seen that one-for-one dynamic. Russia wrongfully detains an American and they demand the specific release of a Russian who was arrested in the United States. And those deals, while they might be controversial, are about as straightforward as they can get in terms of prisoner swaps. This one (involving Whelan) was extremely complicated because of the number of countries involved, the number of prisoners, the complicated choreography. In an ideal world, the countries that are frequent targets of this kind of attack are going to start really working together to deter the practice going forward.

Read more: Family of Novi man released from Russian prison say they can finally exhale

QK: One of the criticisms of the exchange has been that it rewards Russia and by extension any other country that would follow suit for taking Americans hostage that the government believes could be used as trade bait. How do you think the U.S. can combat that kind of approach?

DG: That requires coordination among allies, drawing on the tools of the international system. How can they punish a state like Russia for engaging in this practice? There might be sanctions on hostage takers, it might result in prosecution or other means of drawing on a country’s own legal system. And thinking about ways to exclude Russia from the things that it might enjoy in the international system.

QK: The U.S. is already involved in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. There’s few other examples that would be testier for governments to be dealing with than an ongoing war. And yet this deal seems to have achieved Russia’s goals. So in the future would actions like sanctions be sufficient? Is there something else that countries can do to try to deter this type of hostage-taking?

DG: That’s the real million dollar question. It’s the question that gets me up in the morning. Government officials in the United States and a lot of other frequent targets, countries like Canada, the U.K. and Australia are putting their best minds to work to figure this out. The commission that I’m a part of at CSIS is also working on this question and hoping to make recommendations to the next U.S. presidential administration on how they might think about deterring this practice going forward. One big part of it has to do with prevention. Let’s say the U.S. government can’t put more sanctions on these countries that are already so heavily sanctioned. Well, what can the U.S. government do to prevent its citizens from traveling to places like Russia in the first place? How can they increase education? How can they engage the private sector that requires employees to travel to make sure that Americans who are going to these places are aware of the risks that they might be facing, understand other countries’ laws and hopefully stop traveling to places that the U.S. government strongly urges Americans not to visit, like Russia.

Use the media player above to listen to the interview with Danielle Gilbert.

Democrats continue basking in the afterglow of an energetic national convention, where Kamala Harris became the first Black woman to lead a major party presidential ticket.

But as the fanfare fades, Democrats now must grapple with perhaps THE overriding issue among voters — the state of the economy, and the price of goods and services.

The party faithful say the Midwest — and Michigan in particular — remain the epicenter of efforts to define how best to address economic concerns.

At one of the Michigan delegate breakfasts held throughout the convention, those munching their eggs and bagels were greeted by a familiar figure. 

Former Michigan Governor and current U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pushed-back against surveys showing many voters feel their personal finances were better, when Republicans and Donald Trump controlled the White House. 

“They are not better on the economy!” Granholm said. “This administration, the Biden-Harris administration has created more jobs than any president in the history of America in one term. We are the ones who are bringing this economy back, and Michigan is at the tip of the spear.”

Yet Democrats in the room know many Michigan voters feel pushed daily by the cost of food and other items that government data says should actually be more affordable. 

The contradiction is not lost on the volunteer chair of the state Democrats 12th Congressional District, Kevin Tolbert. He says he’ll be retiring within days from his full-time job with the United Auto Worker union and claims Republicans who blame Democrats for inflation are selling his fellow members a bad bill of goods.

“Those prices aren’t high because of something that someone in government did,” said Tolbert. “Those prices are high because we have conglomerates controlling the majority of the grocery stores and the things of that nature. So I know people are feeling that pain, but if we understand the focus is directed correctly. Let’s look at the real problems and figure out solutions instead of being targeted to be mad at the wrong people.”

Yet a significant number of traditionally left-leaning union members say they will back Trump because he is for the “working class.”

It’s a theme GOP Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance touted during a recent campaign stop in a Grand Rapids suburb. 

“When American businesses threatened to shut down factories and move them to Mexico and China, remember what Trump did? He picked up the phone and said, ‘if you do that, I’m going to introduce you to a little word called the tariff.’ And a lot of Americans benefit because he was willing to fight for their interests and their American jobs,” Vance said.

Democrats counter that Trump wants to target so many foreign products with tariffs it would amount to a national sales tax on goods and services.

Vice President Kamala Harris presented her economic agenda about a week before accepting the Democratic nomination for president.

Though somewhat vague on specifics, Harris pledged to limit the cost of prescription drugs and work to pass what she calls the first federal ban on price-gouging by grocery store chains. 

“My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food businesses that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead,” she said. “Because I believe more competition means lower prices for you and your families.” 

It’s a vow greeted with gratitude by some outside the chain link fences that surrounded the Chicago convention site, even among those who chanted a message that might startle Michiganders almost as much as high food prices.

A small group of Ohioans lined a street, chanting “Ohio! Fire Jim Jordan-dot-com. Elect Tamie Wilson to Congress. Ohio!” They were campaigning for the Democrat’s long-shot bid to unseat Trump ally Jordan in the U.S. House. 

Wilson says Jordan and the GOP tried to stop the Biden administration from setting up a domestic supply chain for semiconductor chips and electric batteries. She says such efforts further inflame an electorate already edgy about their finances. 

“Oh yeah, everyone’s worried about the economy,” said Wilson. “I’m worried about the economy, and that’s why I’m running for Congress. You know, Jim Jordan, he voted against the CHIPS Act, which is bringing 10,000 jobs to Ohio. People in my district shouldn’t have to drive an hour, two hours, to get a good-paying job.” 

Standing with Wilson, Ohio attorney Rocky Ratliff notes that the COVID-19 pandemic caused economic upheaval across the country. 

He says those who fondly remember the flow of commerce during most of former President Trump’s term forget the situation the Biden-Harris administration found itself in. 

“What they got was a world to clean up post-COVID, with kids in school, with the economy and so forth, having to kick-start it,” he said. “They didn’t have a well-running economy handed down by the Obama presidency. So they didn’t have that opportunity. Ever.” 

Nearby, at the entrance to the “Dem-Palooza” Expo, volunteer Julia Hofmann said she traveled to the convention from Orlando, Florida, where the pandemic — and the resulting economic chaos — turned her life upside down. 

“I am a small business owner and a mother of three. And it is hard, it is hard,” she said. “When I planned my family several years ago and knew I wanted three children…I knew I could afford it. And now I can’t. And the spending power of clients has gone down dramatically. So as a small business owner I’m greatly impacted.” 

Hofmann says she is not so concerned about who to blame for high prices. She says she just wants Kamala Harris to bring cost of living down. 

“I don’t think that is Biden’s fault. I think the wheels were in motion and a lot of what transpired was from policy that Trump put into place,” said Hofmann. “Not thrilled with how Biden has addressed it, or lack of addressing. So I think a fresher face might be good.” 

It’s a hope shared by other Democrats at the national convention, even as Republicans contend Harris is part of a Biden administration they claim has not effectively addressed the nation’s financial woes. 

President Biden has reportedly been frustrated that much of his economic agenda has been slow to show an impact voters can feel. 

Whether presidential candidate Harris can make the case that she will have more of an immediate impact on prices may decide who wins battleground states like Michigan — and ultimately — the White House.