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Huge numbers of Americans took to the streets over the weekend for so-called “Hands Off” protests. People were condemning the Trump administration and many of its policies, including cuts to the National Park Service and other public lands. 

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has reduced staff that oversees public lands by hundreds of people. A judge ordered those positions to be reinstated, but it’s unclear how many people have actually returned to work. The White House has vowed to fight those rulings. 

Advocates, meanwhile, are bracing for additional cuts. This upheaval has raised concerns about the health and survival of America’s public lands, from popular national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone to national lakeshores like Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes. 

Tom Ulrich was the deputy superintendent for Sleeping Bear Dunes for more than two decades before retiring in 2023. Ulrich joined The Metro to discuss the current challenges facing America’s public lands. 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order last week, directing national parks to “remain open and accessible.” Burgum says that means there will be proper staffing, but not everyone is convinced this will happen. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Monday, April 7:

• Mallory McMorrow wants to bring a new generation to the US Senate
• Curbing the impulse to buy more stuff
• Political pressure is ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs

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Education in the U.S. is facing upheaval. The Department of Education is dissolving as President Donald Trump makes good on his campaign promise to dismantle it. 

Last week, Trump signed an executive order directing the education secretary to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”

States and local communities already largely control education in the U.S. But some conservative activists have long opposed the department and its role as a civil rights watchdog. Since Trump took office in January, the department has paused thousands of its civil rights investigations.

Trump has blamed the department for lagging student achievement. He argues it is part of a “bloated federal system” that must be eliminated. 

One of the department’s key roles is distributing funding to many low-income districts, including Detroit schools. The Department of Education provides around 30% of the funding for the Detroit Public Schools Community District,  Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.

Trump claims low-income districts will still have access to this crucial funding. But school officials like Vitti remain concerned. 

He sat down with The Metro co-host Robyn Vincent to discuss how the dismantling of the Department of Education would affect “all Detroit kids.”

He began by discussing one of the most pressing issues facing Detroit schools: a lack of funding — and why federal money is vital for Detroit students.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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In metro Detroit, a quarter of low-income households pay more than 19% of their earnings to keep the lights on. Metro Detroiters from vulnerable communities, including Black, Hispanic and Native American residents, tend to shoulder the highest energy burdens. People living in low-income multifamily buildings, as well as older adults and renters, are also hit harder by energy costs. 

A significant energy burden means powering appliances and heating and cooling your home could be out of reach. Energy insecurity touches every facet of life. It can make it hard to hold down a job, hard to get to school, and hard to stay healthy.

DTE Energy recently filed a notice for its plan to raise rates. That request will then be filed with Michigan regulators in April and will take multiple months of review. If it is approved, residents would not see a rate hike until next year. This rate hike request comes just months after Michigan regulators approved another DTE rate increase. In January, the utility was OKed to raise rates by $217 million.

Rate hikes by DTE are among several pressure points worrying advocates. 

Shutoffs for nonpayment are a big part of DTE operations. According to a recent report by the Center for Biological Diversity, DTE shut off electricity 150,000 times for residents who couldn’t pay their bills between January and September. 

“DTE customers already have some of the highest residential rates in the country — the average bill is 17% more than that of the Great Lakes region and 11% more than the U.S. average,” the report reads. 

In a statement sent to The Metro, DTE spokesperson Ryan Lowry said the utility cannot yet comment on the rate hike request until it is filed in April with the Michigan Public Service Commission. He pointed out ways the utility supports low-income families.

“DTE and its agency partners offer a variety of assistance options to help those in need, and last year alone, we connected customers to nearly $144 million in energy assistance,” he said. 

Lowry said DTE was “proud to see Governor Whitmer sign four pieces of legislation into law to double the funding available for low-income Michiganders under the Michigan Energy Assistance Program, as well as expanded the criteria for the program so that anyone at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level would be eligible.”

Advocates, though, say increasing energy costs, shutoffs and DTE’s reliance on fossil fuels are a big problem.

Khary Frazier with Soulardarity, a nonprofit working to make clean energy accessible and affordable to all, joined The Metro on Wednesday to discuss how high energy costs affect metro Detroiters.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.

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Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders to dismantle transgender rights. 

These moves are not surprising. Trump used ugly rhetoric on the campaign trail to target this small minority of people.

Transgender young people and adults account for less than 2% of the U.S. population. But advocates warn that attacking trans rights opens the door to rolling back other Americans’ rights. 

A transgender person is someone whose sex assigned at birth is different from who they know they are on the inside, the Human Rights Campaign explains. That could include someone who’s medically transitioned, so their physical appearance aligns with their understanding of their gender. It also includes people who have not transitioned or who do not solely identify as male or female. 

Still, sowing confusion about transgender people and dehumanizing them has been central to Trump’s political strategy.

Staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan Jay Kaplan joined The Metro to discuss why Trump is targeting this small minority of Americans, why attacks on transgender rights are relevant to everyone, and what the landscape in Michigan is like for LGBTQ people. Kaplan leads the LGBTQ Project at the Michigan ACLU. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.

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College campuses have long been wellsprings for free speech and social movements. During the Civil Rights era, they were the site of sit-ins and student activism demanding equal rights for Black Americans. During the Iraq war, students marched across campuses nationwide to protest the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. 

Those actions had impact.

Years later, after the murder of George Floyd, most students weren’t on campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But some college administrators showed their approval of the protests sweeping the nation. They held virtual vigils and declared Juneteenth a holiday. 

Today, as students protest in support of Palestinian rights amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, things look different. Since the war began in October 2023, hundreds of students demanding a ceasefire have been arrested.

At the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, police detained or disbursed dozens of student protesters and alumni. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is pursuing criminal charges against some University of Michigan protesters for several alleged actions they took during the protests. The charges represent “a pattern of excessive response by law enforcement to the campus protests,” according to the ACLU of Michigan, which filed suit against the university in February for banning protesters from campus.

Now, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University, who led pro-Palestine protests there, is facing deportation. Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without due process and detained by ICE for allegedly supporting Hamas. The Trump administration has not produced any evidence to support this claim. Khalil is a legal permanent resident and is married to an American who is eight months pregnant. 

This week, a federal judge blocked Khalil’s deportation but has not yet ruled whether he will be released from custody. 

President Donald Trump has said Khalil’s arrest represents the beginning of many more.

Shikha Dalmia joined The Metro on Wednesday to discuss this. She is the president of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism and the editor-in-chief of The UnPopulist, a free Substack publication devoted to defending liberal democracies from the rising forces of populist nationalism.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation, beginning at the 06:50 mark.

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If you are nervous about flying right now, you’re likely not alone.

The last two months have been marked by a string of airplane crashes and incidents. In January, an American Airlines aircraft collided with a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter at Reagan Washington National Airport. All 67 people on both aircraft died. 

It was the first time in 15 years that a U.S. airline had a fatal crash. 

Two days later, a MEDEVAC jet nosedived onto a busy Philadelphia street. The plane exploded and seven people died. 

Then, in Toronto, a Delta aircraft crashed and flipped. It skidded down the tarmac upside down before coming to a stop. There were no fatalities, but the crash left 21 people injured. 

These are just some recent high-profile incidents that have captured headlines and heightened people’s anxieties about flying. 

According to data from the National Transportation Safety Board, 19 fatal accidents have occurred in the skies this year. Those numbers are lower than those for the same periods in 2024 and 2023. 

But, it’s hard not to feel some apprehension after hearing about the Washington D.C. mid-air collision of a commercial plane and a U.S. Army helicopter.

These recent incidents have renewed calls for fixing staffing and outdated technology issues in aviation. During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, leaders of aviation safety and air traffic control associations urged Congress to help fix the staffing issues. 

They also pointed to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) firing around 400 Federal Aviation Administration employees. David Spero, president of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, said the firings demoralize the workforce and jeopardize airline safety.

So today on The Metro, we’re looking at the state of American aviation — what needs to improve and how.

Guests:

• Daniel Bubb: Former airline pilot, aviation historian and professor of history and politics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• Todd Yeary: Former air traffic control specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration. He was in that role during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation.

More headlines from The Metro on March 5, 2025:  

• Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin addressed the Democrats following President Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday. She criticized Trump for helping wealthy people and raising prices. Slotkin also invited Andrew Lennox, a veteran who was recently fired from the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs office, to join her. Before that announcement, The Metro spoke with Lennox to explore the consequences of his firing and what he makes of Trump’s actions thus far.

• It’s official — U.S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico are in place. President Trump enacted 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico. The tariffs will affect broad swaths of the U.S. economy, but the auto industries in southeast Michigan and Ontario are expected to be hit especially hard. We look at the impacts with John Irwin, a reporter for the Automotive News, where he covers suppliers, electric vehicles and trade policy. 

• InsideOut Literary Arts is presenting its third annual Detroit Youth Poetry Con on Saturday, March 15. The day-long event will allow teen poets to participate in writing workshops and community-building activities and share their work with peers and seasoned writers. To share more about the event, InsideOut Literary Arts Executive Director Suma Karaman and Citywide Poets Coordinator Justin Rogers joined the show.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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For many Arab Americans in Southeast Michigan, Dearborn is a point of pride. For decades, immigrants from across the Arab world have left an imprint on the suburb bordering Detroit that continues to widen and deepen.

Today, the city, which has an Arab majority, reflects the rich historical, cultural and ethnic diversity of the Arab world.

It is also home to the Arab American National Museum.

A new exhibit at the museum gives us a window into Dearborn’s Southend neighborhood. It is an area that Arab Americans fought to protect amid a zoning battle that lasted from the 1950s to the 70s. They fought against a city plan that would have turned the area into a major industrial hub. 

“Seeing the Southend” includes photographs by Tony Maine depicting Yemeni and Lebanese people living ordinary lives in the Southend neighborhood during the 1960s and 70s. In this way, there is beauty in the mundane, said Rasha Almulaiki, who will moderate a discussion during the show’s opening on March 6. The photos, she said, show Arab American life that is seldom seen but vital to unraveling persistent stereotypes.

Exhibit curator Dean Nessredine and Almulaiki joined the show to discuss what we can learn from these photos of thriving, everyday Arab immigrants and why the exhibit is important to view now.

Use the media player above to hear the conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.

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From the National Park Service to FEMA, thousands of people have been laid off as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to “make government agencies more efficient.” 

Under the leadership of Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency is slashing jobs across more than a dozen agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Ten year Marine Corps veteran Andrew Lennox joins the show. He was working as an administrative officer in the primary care department in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor and is now without a job due to DOGE cuts.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Feb. 26, 2025.

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Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by confusion and chaos for tens of thousands of federal workers across the country.

Federal departments are under scrutiny by Trump and Elon Musk, under the guise of making the government more efficient. Although Musk wasn’t elected by anyone, he’s been making sweeping changes and massive cuts to federal agencies — many of which regulate his companies.

His so-called Department of Government Efficiency, approved by Trump, has fired 1,000 National Parks Service employees; 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers and 2,400 people at the Veterans Affairs department. 

These moves have frustrated many people and sparked some heated moments across the country. In town halls held this past weekend, Republican lawmakers were confronted by angry voters demanding answers. 

Doug Collins, the Trump-appointed Veterans Affairs Secretary, has said the department isn’t cutting critical health care or benefits. 

To discuss these massive cuts to federal agencies, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell joined The Metro. She represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District and she’s been sounding the alarm about cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.

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It’s been 60 years since a pivotal moment in the fight for equality in America. 

In March 1965, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led protestors on a three-day, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Marchers were met with violence by Alabama State Troopers. The appalling scene was broadcast on live television on what is now called “Bloody Sunday.” 

Images of Alabama state troopers using whips, batons, and tear gas to beat back the peaceful protestors shocked Americans. It was a watershed moment that eventually led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. 

Since then, as years become decades, the struggle for equal rights and freedoms for all Americans has taken many turns. The fight for equal rights today looks very different in some ways. In other ways, it feels the same as it ever was. 

To reflect on what’s changed and what stayed the same, we’re joined by Vice President of the Brennan Center for Justice Kareem Crayton. 

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.

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