High fuel costs are impacting everyone. One industry is being hit particularly hard. 

Truckers are seeing costs skyrocket as diesel costs have risen 41% since the start of America and Israel’s wars with Iran. 

Jim Burg is the President of the James Burg Trucking Company in Warren. He’s been moving steel in the trucking business for decades. While he says costs are rising really fast, at this point, he’s only been modestly impacted by them.

He talks about how he made his start in trucking and what he envisions for the future of the business with The Metro’s Sam Corey.

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Many look at our politics and feel powerless. But they often skip over the decisions that are happening in their backyard, and turn to the actions in Washington. 

For many, that’s not the story in Oakland County. 

On April 8, hundreds of people showed up to protest surveillance technology. And because of the way that meeting was conducted, a number of people decided to organize to try to recall Oakland County Chair Dave Woodward. 

What happened at that April 8 meeting? What would it mean to recall the legislative leader of Oakland County? What might come of all this local political organizing?

Justine Galbraith is a leader of the I Am Oakland County campaign. Justine joined Robyn Vincent to discuss her attempt to recall Chair Woodward.

The Metro called and emailed Oakland County Commissioner Dave Woodward prior to this segment. He later responded and appeared on The Metro on Thursday, May 7, 2026.

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Progressives won big at the recent Democratic nominating convention. Eli Savit for attorney general, and Amir Mackled for University of Michigan Board of Regents. 

There were cheers for progressive Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed, and there were boos for more moderate speakers like Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who is also running for Senate.

Progressives organized well, and now there’s a lot of energy at their backs. But some are concerned that they will struggle to win general elections. 

Adrian J. Hemond is one of those people. He’s a longtime Democrat and the CEO of Grassroots Midwest, a bipartisan grassroots advocacy firm. 

Producer Sam Corey spoke with him about the promises of progressive organizing, and the challenges that could await them come November

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In November, voters will choose a new governor.

On the Republican side, the race is shaping up around Congressman John James and businessman Perry Johnson, who’s spending heavily out of his own pocket. 

Last week, one of their competitors became the first to drop out: former House Speaker Tom Leonard. He was running what most observers considered the most substantive policy campaign in the field.

As Speaker of the House, he ended Michigan’s driver responsibility fees, he worked with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on auto insurance reform, and he pushed to expand Michigan’s open records law to the governor’s office.

He says he left the governor’s race because it had gotten too negative — that he wasn’t willing to compromise who he was to win. It’s a striking claim. It’s also one worth examining. Leonard spoke about all that and more with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Shirley Brezzell didn’t plan to become a teacher. But after a stint as a banker and home-schooling her children, she dived into the profession. 

Now, Brezzell is being honored by a state organization for her work teaching science at Detroit’s Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School. One of her most interesting accomplishments is getting students to engage in a garden to learn healthy eating habits. 

She is retiring in the fall, at a moment when thousands of Michigan teachers are leaving the profession, and the state is struggling to replace them. So, we wanted to speak with the science and social studies teacher about what she’s learned as a teacher, and the advice she has for new educators and parents.

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A few years ago, Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, and Israel responded against Palestinians with what many experts call genocide. 

Although the violence — which is still going on — occurrs in the Middle East, the actions have had reverberations for Americans. 

Anti-semitism and Islamophobia have grown worse. After October of 2023, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and CAIR national recorded some of the highest levels of Islamophobic activity seen since September 11, 2001.

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke to people practicing Islam in the area, and scholars of Islamophobia to better understand why this particular form of hatred is rising.

Click play on the media player above to hear the full story and additional comments by Sam Corey on The Metro.

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For the first time in decades, more people are seeking talk therapy over medication. 

The good news is there’s less stigma preventing people from accessing care. The bad news: A lot of people struggle to access therapy. Some clinicians argue that one of the big issues is private equity. 

Private equity investments in health care have grown to over $750 billion over the past decade.

Linda Michaels says that’s had devastating consequences for both clients and clinicians. People are less likely to get the therapy they need. And therapists are in a worse position to offer it. 

That’s the premise of Michaels’ talk this Sunday at a local fundraiser for a metro Detroit clinic. She is a psychologist in private practice in Chicago and a co-founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

The Metro reached out to two big health insurance providers, United Behavioral Health and Cigna. We wanted their perspective on how their administrative systems have complicated work for therapists, and made getting therapy harder. We did the same for several private equity groups. None of them offered a comment.

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The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration. President Donald Trump has conducted more ICE raids, signaled tougher security at the border, and has prevented fewer legal immigrants from entering the country. 

The Trump administration is also trying to end humanitarian immigration programs. One of those is Temporary Protected Status or TPS. 

The administration has revoked deportation protections from about one million people in the U.S. Most of them are from Venezuela and Honduras. It’s trying to revoke TPS from other countries but the courts have blocked the attempt.

The Department of Homeland Security says many countries on the TPS list are no longer in crisis. But many representing immigrants in court say otherwise.

Megan Hauptman is a Litigation Staff Attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project. She is fighting the Trump administration to keep TPS for over 6,000 people from Syria. Over 1,500 of them live in Michigan alone. 

What exactly is TPS status? And what would happen if more people were to lose it? Megan Hauptman spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.

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Large groups of teenagers have been gathering in downtown Detroit organized on TikTok and Snapchat. It’s part of a national trend being called “teen takeovers.” Most of the kids were just hanging out. But some of these gatherings turned chaotic. There have been brawls, vandalism, and an attempted robbery on Woodward. On April 11, a gun was fired, though no one was hurt.

Two of the 16-year-olds who organized the first gathering sat next to Mayor Mary Sheffield at a press conference last week. Daveion Page said he did it because he was bored. Danasha’ Tidwell said the violence that followed was “harmful and very unacceptable.”

Where can Detroit kids go to be safe and have fun? And, what’s the responsibility of a city to help grow and develop young people? 

Jerjuan Howard is the first director of Detroit’s new Office of Youth Affairs. He’s also an Army veteran, founder of the Umoja Debate League, and the owner of a new bookstore on Puritan Avenue. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Inquiries for new electric vehicles has risen more than a quarter since America and Israel’s war in Iran began. But EVs need to be charged — and that’s easier to do in some places.

If you’re in China, you can charge an EV in just a few minutes. In Michigan, we’re way behind that reality.

But despite the Trump administration’s distaste for EVs, the infrastructure for electricity is improving. The number of charging ports in the state grew by about 1,800 last year — the most significant uptick in one year. 

So, if you’re thinking about buying or leasing an EV, what does all this mean for you?

Sophia Schuster is the policy principal for the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council. She spoke with Host Robyn Vincent.

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Metro Detroit’s infrastructure is old. Many of the homes people live in, the streets they drive on, and the drainage systems they use were constructed many decades ago. And most of that infrastructure is considered gray — it’s made of concrete, steel, and asphalt. 

That material is sturdy. But it’s less helpful for navigating extreme weather, especially flooding. The good news is that across metro Detroit, green infrastructure projects are cropping up. 

What do those look like? Why do they matter? And, how can more residents create green infrastructure projects to prevent flooding, and beautify their communities? 

Jim Nash is the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner. He spoke with host Robyn Vincent.

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We’re in a moment of polarization. We’re struggling to see each other, to hear one another and to understand different perspectives. 

A 2024 Gallup poll found that 80 percent of adults believe we are greatly divided in our most important values. A more recent New York Times poll found that most voters don’t believe these divisions can be overcome. 

There are fewer and fewer people who have faith in one another. Many believe that our democracy will crumble because we are simply incapable of solving problems across the aisle. 

The folks working in interfaith dialogue think differently. 

Sam Corey spoke with a few of them to understand the promise and limitations of that work.

In 2019, Michigan’s largest utility ended what’s called net metering. That meant if you had solar panels, you no longer got full credit for the extra energy you sent back to the grid. So, instead of getting a dollar’s worth of credit, you might get 30 cents.

But in Ann Arbor, this didn’t slow down rooftop solar, or make it less attractive financially. Solar installations exploded there —from 17 per year before 2019 to 180 per year since 2020.

This is partly because of a program called Solarize — neighbors banding together to get group discounts on solar installations. Now it has spread across metro Detroit.

Julie Roth launched Solarize. Today, she’s the energy manager at the city of Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Getting a college degree in Detroit has never been easy. More than half of all children in Detroit live below the poverty line. Many Detroit public school graduates do not enroll in college within a year of finishing high school. And of those who do enroll, most don’t earn a degree within six years.

Detroit Public Schools just recorded its highest graduation rate in nearly two decades. 

But it’s always been a hard race for Detroit kids. And right now, it could be getting more difficult. 

Student loan rules are changing in July. The programs that help low-income students get to college are on the chopping block in President Donald Trump’s latest budget. And, the department that oversees all of these things has cut its workforce in half. 

How are students impacted by these changes? How are they interpreting them? And, how do we close the college education gap between Detroit and suburban students.

The folks at the Detroit College Access Network have a sense of this. They work with students to help them navigate financial aid, applications, and what comes after. They’re want 60% of Detroit residents to have some form of postsecondary education by 2030. 

Cyekeia Lee is the executive director of the Detroit College Access Network. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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President Donald Trump and Republicans want to transform the election process.

Recently, the president signed an executive order that seeks to change how mail-in voting works, placing it under the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Trump and Republicans are also trying to pass the SAVE Act, which would ensure voters provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting.

All of this is happening as the president has called to “nationalize the elections,” and as MAGA influencer Steve Bannon has asked ICE officials to patrol polling locations in November. 

What should we make of all these efforts? How secure are voting systems? 

Republican Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.

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When President Donald Trump took office, he promised to crack down on immigration. He’s done that. 

Since January of 2025, at least 2,400 immigrants were arrested in Michigan alone. But President Trump and immigration officials are not following an orderly process. Officials are often skirting the law, or violating it. 

This was visible months ago in Minneapolis, when masked ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti and thousands took to the streets. Here in Michigan, the work of ICE is harder to spot. But due to action in the courts, we’ve been learning more. 

Federal judges recently ruled that hundreds of people in Michigan were unconstitutionally detained as they never had a chance of being released on bond. 

For its part, the administration says it’s detaining the “worst of the worst.” But in many cases, non-citizens without a criminal record have been detained. 

So, what do ICE arrests and detentions look like in metro Detroit? What are the stories of those who’ve been detained? How are local police involved in the work? And, who’s fighting back? 

Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Since 2015, consumer confidence in the economy has plummeted according to recent consumer survey data by the University of Michigan. But while confidence has declined, spending has remained strong. Why? And, how have rising gas prices factored into the economy?

Professor Joanne Hsu is the director of the monthly Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan. She spoke with The Metro’s Sam Corey.

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Automakers and auto suppliers are a huge part of metro Detroit’s economy. And they will likely have to change as the war unfolds. 

As America’s strikes against Iran continue, and the Strait of Hormuz remains in question, gas prices are rising, and more people are thinking about purchasing an electric vehicle. 

But despite interest, how much will EV sales actually increase for companies like Ford, GM and Stellantis — especially as car sales in general have plummeted over the past few decades?

John McElroy is an automotive analyst with Autoline. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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The economy has undergone many drastic changes over the years. If you’re a millennial, change and chaos have been commonplace.

The Great Recession hit in the late aughts, reducing wealth. About ten years later, the pandemic occurred, causing many to stay at home and others to risk their health at work. Inflation deepened during President Joe Biden’s time in office. President Trump enacted tariffs. And now, the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran. 

It’s hard to gauge all the consequences of this latest shock, but it’s a continuation of one thing: uncertainty. 

Rising gas prices and supply chain disruptions are now among the challenges small businesses must navigate. It might be why over half of small businesses owners in Michigan say they’re making operational changes to prepare for a recession, according to a recent survey. 

Which small businesses are hit hardest by the war in Iran and its disruptions? And, what could make them more resilient in the face of chaos?

Mark Lee is the president and CEO of The Lee Group, where he consults with small businesses across Southeast Michigan. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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