It’s the 4th of July weekend and many Michiganders are celebrating by going to their favorite parks to go swimming, hiking, camping and fishing. This week on MichMash, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow discuss the recent investments  put into parks. They are joined by Kristen Kosick. She is the chief of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation division.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• How did the American Rescue Plan Act affect Michigan state parks?
• Which parks are getting massive renovations?
• Michigan’s state park infrastructure over the years.

More from WDET:

• Detroit Evening Report: Detroit Parks Coalition expands We Walk Detroit program
• The Metro: First-time campers welcome at Metroparks’ newly renovated Walnut Grove Campground
• Oakland County upgrades parks system with ‘Mission 26’

The United States of America is celebrating its 250th anniversary this week.  There will be parades and fireworks and lots of speeches. But does this holiday mean the same thing to African Americans as it does to other Americans? 

Vincent Hutchings is a political science professor at the University of Michigan.  WDET’s Jerome Vaughn asked him about the meaning of “Independence Day” for the country’s Black citizens.

Hutchings says the holiday doesn’t mean the same for whites as it does for Black Americans because of their different experiences over the last 250 years.  He says, for example, that Black people were largely enslaved for the first 80-plus years of the country.

“The truth of the matter is that the country that we think of today as the United States of America, from the vantage point of most African-Americans doesn’t actually start until 1865, not 1776.”

Hutchings says there has been a disparity between the lived experiences of most White Americans and most Black Americans throughout the history of the country.  And he says that continues to be the case as demonstrated by a number of metrics today.

“On multiple dimensions from life expectancy to maternal health to infant mortality to unemployment to poverty, to the racial wealth gap and various other outcomes, Black Americans, on average are living in very different circumstances.  And it’s not by accident.”

Hutchings says the facts are not in dispute, but the question to be asked is why is that the case. He says, perhaps, many Black Americans will be celebrating their endurance and their ability to survive during the country’s history.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• Why was it surprising that President Donald Trump made an early endorsement for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan?
• Will the state budget get finished on time?
• Who are the frontrunners in this year’s primaries?

Consider this episode as a catch up of all the major news that have been occupying your headlines and a preview of the stories that might come in the future. Like Alethia says in this episode, MichMash is a great summer activity. 

More from WDET:

• MichMash: Abdul El-Sayed shares why he’s running for US Senate + other race updates
• Detroit Evening Report: Congressman John James calls for smoke control in Gordie Howe Bridge deal
• MichMash: Michigan US Senate race begins to take shape; State Senator Singh weighs in on the budget process

Michigan has seen 22 confirmed tornadoes 2026, including three in Metro Detroit.

The National Weather Service has issued more than 50 tornado warnings statewide this year. Joel Fritsma has tracked every one of them online.

Fritsma is the chief meteorologist for Michigan Storm Chasers. The website launched in 2022 and hired Fritsma straight out of Central Michigan University, where he studied meteorology. He says their goal is to fill communication gaps between NWS and the public so people watching online have time to take shelter. 

“Every time there’s a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning in the state, we’d be covering it live,” he says. “Since 2024, we haven’t missed a single warning.”

It’s “go” time

Fristma says he and his team start live streaming as soon as the weather service issues its first warnings for any severe event. And they don’t stop until the last warning comes out.

“Sometimes, it’s upwards of 10 to 11 hours,” he says. “It just depends on how long the storms want to go.”

And it doesn’t matter what time it is. Fritsma was live streaming when a brief tornado hit Lincoln Park between 2 and 3 a.m. on April 15. He doesn’t mind.

“I kind of like taking the night shift,” he says. “We always have at least one person on call throughout the day.”

Fristma says when the weather is fine, he’s still working full-time.

“We’re looking at the forecast multiple days in advance,” he says. “We host live streams prior to an event so that people can ask questions.”

A lot of people tune in

Fritsma says the website’s staff has grown from a handful of people to about 30 since 2022. And he says its audience has grown, too.

“We have over a million followers between all of our platforms,” he says. 

People can watch and interact with the live streams on Facebook and YouTube. And soon, they’ll be able to download a new mobile app.

Fritsma says the app will allow followers to get live streams on their phones and let them report storm damage.

“We have Messenger, we have Discord, there’s so many options,” he says. “And that information will be very crucial when we send it to the National Weather Service.”

The app is set to launch this summer.

If it feels like everyone you know is stressed about money right now, the numbers back you up. This spring, U.S. consumer confidence fell to its lowest level ever, dragged down by gas prices and tariffs. Here in metro Detroit, unemployment is running nearly a point above the national rate, and small business owners are gloomy — just 28% think the economy is in good health.

So here’s the puzzle: At the same time, Michiganders are starting businesses at a furious pace — more than 40,000 new business applications in the first three months of this year, up 25% from a year ago. People say the economy scares them, yet they are betting on themselves anyway.

Mark Lee has spent his career advising small businesses across southeast Michigan, and he started his own company in January 2008, right as the last recession hit. He joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss if these new business owners are jumping or being pushed.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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

Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Michigan is facing a serious housing shortage, with experts estimating the state needs to build nearly 100,000 homes.

Outdated zoning laws hinder the creation of diverse, mixed-use neighborhoods, and lengthy permitting processes slow new developments. Additionally, ongoing shortages of construction workers and building materials make it even harder to add new housing units. As a result, many new developments cater to wealthier residents, leaving residents struggling to find affordable options.

Joe Agostinelli, founder of Miller Johnson Growth Advisors, believes better financing and strong partnerships between local leaders and developers are key to expanding Michigan’s housing supply. His team is developing a new riverfront project in Grand Rapids featuring a mix of offices, apartments, and condos. Agostinelli says that city and the broader Kent County area have been able to develop homes faster than places in metro Detroit.

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with Agostinelli at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference to discuss how his group is trying to build homes quickly in an environment that often moves slow. 

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

In Michigan, we have many needs: higher-paying jobs, better educational outcomes, and more public transit. Above all, we need more people. 

A lot is at stake. Even if your neighborhood feels bustling, when Michigan’s population stops growing, the state actually shrinks in all the ways that matter. Since 1970, we’ve lost a seat in Congress after every census, and those same population counts decide how hundreds of billions in federal funding are divided. That means less money for roads, water systems, housing, and more. As baby boomers retire, our workforce is shrinking, and Michigan has lost 93,000 workers just since last spring. Fewer people here means less political power, fewer resources, and a smaller tax base to pay the bills.

Michigan’s leaders agree — we need to attract more people to our state. Yet one central question remains: how do we make it happen, and who is responsible for leading the way? Some are trying to answer that question. The state of Michigan has a growth office. The City of Detroit has an initiative to grow its population. 

Jeff Donofrio is a leader in the population growth space. He’s the president and chief executive officer of Business Leaders For Michigan. He’s written about this topic in several reports, and he’s worked for the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan to resolve the problem.

He believes we need to reform teaching.“It’s about making sure that [students are] engaged and can do stuff besides passing a standardized test,” says Donofrio.

He joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to explore how government culture needs to change to build more housing, create better regional transit, and to ultimately attract more people to the state.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Transportation Riders United (TRU) is forming a statewide coalition to advocate for better transit options throughout Michigan called Move MI.

The Detroit-based group toured the state on their Around the Mitten Transit Tour, visiting and riding public transit in 16 cities.

TRU Executive Director Megan Owens spoke with WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley about the tour and the issues other transit systems face.

The following interview was edited for time and clarity.

Executive Director Megan Owens: TRU has worked for 25 years now in the metro Detroit area. And we know a lot about the benefits and the challenges of public transportation in metro Detroit. But we know that there’s another 70+ transit agencies around the state of Michigan, and that there are millions of people who depend on transit. So, we wanted to get a better understanding of the strengths and challenges of public transit all across the state of Michigan.

We traveled for 14 days over 1,800 miles, went all the way up to Port Huron, Alpena, Marquette, Traverse City, Benton Harbor—all over the state, 16 different cities, all to learn how public transit works, and where there are gaps, and where it needs improvement. And to think about how the state, the next governor, and other state leaders can be better supporting opportunities for Michiganders who don’t drive or don’t want to drive to still be able to get around and visit friends, family, and all of Michigan’s beautiful locations.

Bre’Anna Tinsley, WDET: So, after seeing all of those different transportation organizations, is there some trend, maybe, that you’ve discovered across the state that’s happening among our transit systems?

MO: There were a couple of things we learned. One that I don’t think a lot of people realize is that you can, in fact, take public transportation across the state of Michigan. It’s not always as convenient or easy as it should be, but we were able to visit 16 different cities using Amtrak, using regional busses, using inner city busses, and could visit all sorts of great places. So one, it was exciting to know that you can do all of these things, but we also learned that the service is way too limited, whether you’re talking about traveling between cities or traveling within any different metropolitan area. There are options to get around, but they’re not nearly as frequent, as reliable, they don’t go as many places as many people want to go.  

So while there are transit agencies that are working extremely hard to provide the very best service that they can, they’re all limited by funding and are really torn to try to provide the very best they can with extremely limited resources.

BT: The reason for the limited resources, did you discover if that was something that’s happening at the state level, or do all of these communities have their own individual limitations?

MO: One of the reasons we did want to explore all of these different areas is that the state does fund an important component of transit in every single community. There’s something called the “local bus operating budget item” (LBO) that we’ve been fighting for years to get the state to increase to make sure that Smart and DDOT have the resources they need. But it funds every one of the 77 transit agencies across the state. At one point in time, the LBO, as it’s called, covered half the costs of running local transit service, so the state covered half the costs, and the local communities came up with half the costs.

But, as costs have gone up and the state budget allocation has not. It’s cover and the state funds are covering barely a third of the of what it costs to run local transit services across the state. And right now it’s one of those things that’s debated in the state budget every year. How much is going to go into this local bus type operating? So, we did make sure one of our last stops was at the state capitol to make sure legislators knew just how important this local bus operating budget is.

Just about every legislator and most of the people they deal with every day are people who drive, and a lot of us are used to driving everywhere. But we wanted to remind legislators that every community has thousands of people who don’t drive, whether that’s seniors, whether that’s students, whether that’s somebody who is saving up for their first car, whether that’s a person with a disability, whether they’re in a wheelchair or have epilepsy or have a developmental disability. There are thousands of people all around us who don’t drive, who deserve to have just as full and robust lives as everyone else. They should be able to see the Great Lakes, they should be able to visit, so many of these wonderful places that we have in our state, even if they don’t drive.

BT: So, are there any takeaways from this trip that you think maybe we can implement here that might help improve the systems?

MO: We learned some great things about the different transit agencies around the state and what they are doing. Flint has been working with a lot of alternative fuels. DDOT and  Smart have tested out electric buses that have had mixed success. But Flint is working with compressed national natural gas and with hydrogen, and so even as diesel prices shoot up, several of the systems, like Flint and Port Huron, have not had to deal with those skyrocketing costs. So, exploring different types of fuels for the buses.

There are a number of the systems around the around the state, you can just use any old credit card and tap as you enter the bus, and use that as a way to pay. So that’s something I know that our local agencies are looking into, but it was neat to see just how quick and easy it was. You didn’t need any special app, you didn’t need any official pass…if you got a credit card, you tap it, and you enter. So, I think that’s something that could make it again even easier to ride transit in our areas as well.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode

• How do we currently nominate secretary of state and attorney general?
• Reactions to this new proposal

Johnson says that having voters choose secretary of state and attorney general nominees allows for better representation for both the Democratic and Republican parties, as opposed to party conventions which are dominated by “insiders and special interests.”

“Anytime you have more people involved, you get a better reflection of society,” said Johnson. “It’s time to move forward and present this choice to the people of Michigan.”

The other two states that don’t use voters to nominate these roles are South Dakota and Indiana.

Johnson said roles that he and his group may focus on next includes Michigan Supreme Court seats and university trustees.

More from WDET

• Current and Former Secretaries of State Talk Transparency To Kick Off Sunshine Week
• MichMash: Attorney General Dana Nessel talks ICE detention center lawsuit, data centers and more
• MichMash: Secretary Benson on presidential primaries, election security

The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority abruptly canceled festivities planned for the Gordie Howe Bridge ribbon cutting tomorrow.

Windsor Detroit Bridge officials said that the US and Canada have agreed to push back the opening of the span in order to take, “the necessary time to resolve outstanding issues”. The statement did not say what those issues are.

President Trump has planned to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge saying that he wants the bridge crossing to be a better deal for the US. Bridge officials haven’t clarified whether the construction of the span is complete.  

Additional headlines for Thursday, June 11, 2026

Charity car show

Local nonprofit Healing Choices is hosting a charity event on Sunday June 14 to support domestic violence survivors. It’s the Healing Choices Charity Car Show at Metro Beach featuring classic cars, hotrods, muscle cars and more.

The Detroit Police Department will be at the event to showcase some of their vehicles. And The organization will also provide resources to survivors.  

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $10 per ticket and can be purchased at the park entrance.  

Sports updates

FIFA 
Detroit City FC AND the El Paso Locomotive FC tied yesterday 1-1. Before the game the rain was non stop at the Keyworth Stadium but they were still able to have their match. Their next game is Saturday June 13 at 7 p.m. 

Also the Fifa World Cup starts today with co-host Mexico playing the opener in Mexico City against South Africa.

The United States plays their first game against Paraguay tomorrow at 9 p.m. EST at the Los Angeles stadium in Inglewood. 

MLB 
The Tigers lost against the Minnesota Twins yesterday 6-4. We’ll have the results of today’s tie breaker game of this three game series on tomorrow’s DER. 
 
NBA  
Last night, NBA history was made. The New Knicks had the largest finals comeback in history after erasing a 29 point deficit yesterday against the San Antonio Spurs.

Final score was 107-106.  

Henry Ford exhibits to recognize 250 years of the US

And last but not least, to celebrate America’s 250^th year the Henry Ford Museum is showcasing 250 acres of special programming, new exhibitions, exciting events and more to highlight the history of American innovation. 
 
Some of the exhibits will be: 

• Handmade: The Crafting of America  -This exhibit explores how fabrics helped shape American history.
• Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation – This exhibit looks at the important key documents of this nation. The Henry Ford is one of eight institutions across the U.S. where nine original founding-era documents and it will be on display.
• Artemis Adventure with LEGO® Bricks – This exhibit looks at American space exploration to the wonder of legos.  

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Detroit and Windsor sit across a narrow river from each other, close enough to see the lights on the other side. For decades, they existed like one town in two countries. Auto parts crossed the water again and again before a single car was finished. Families, music, and Saturday nights moved back and forth with a constant rhythm.

Then, after 9/11, crossing got harder with longer waits and tougher searches.

Soon, the two cities will cut the ribbon on something new between them: the Gordie Howe International Bridge. That ribbon cutting, scheduled for June 12, has been postponed, and officials aren’t saying exactly why. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the bridge a symbol, but also a fact of cooperation. Yet it comes at a tense moment. President Donald Trump has threatened to block it, wrongly claiming the U.S. would get nothing from a bridge that Michigan actually co-owns.

So what does this bridge, the first publicly-owned one at this border, do for Windsor and Detroit — and for the people who have spent their lives crossing between them? 

On The Metro, host Robyn Vincent spoke with Lee Rodney, a border-culture scholar at the University of Windsor and creator of the Border Bookmobile, about what a new bridge actually does for a region the border has divided.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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

Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

The Michigan Senate is set to lose three women of color from Detroit-area districts.

Erika Geiss, Stephanie Chang, and Sylvia Santana are all term limited.

Eboni Taylor is running in the 3^rd district – and was recruited to run by Senator Chang.

There are 10 other people in the primary including: Kimberley Hill Knott, Latanya Garrett,  Adam Hollier, John Conyers III, and Korey Hall.

Taylor is also the Vice President of Programs for Higher Heights for America, a political action committee with the goal of increasing Black women’s elected representation. Taylor spoke to WDET’s Russ McNamara about the challenges Black women face in campaigns and where she finds the most support.  

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Taylor: All federal races, all statewide executive races, according to the state’s constitution, and the only local race that we partake in is top 100 cities for mayor. So, really excited that my organization, with me at the helm of the program and the political work, was very proud that we were able to support our now Mayor Mary Sheffield. 

McNamara: Does Mayor Sheffield endorse your campaign currently? 

Taylor: I think that Mayor Sheffield is currently staying out of it because it is an extremely crowded race. There are 11 people in the race, but I know that she does believe strongly in Black women’s leadership, and Black women stepping up and deciding to run. So, I do know that she holds that value. 

McNamara: What are the challenges that go into getting a woman of color elected? Black women specifically. 

Taylor: Women in general, it takes them four to five times to be asked to run before they say yes. A woman of color, it takes even more times for them to be asked before they decide to run, and when they do say yes, the issues that they face are numerous, but the number one issue is that it’s hard to raise funds. As the Vice President of Programs and the political work at Higher Heights, I’m in conversations with candidates all across the country, all different walks of life, and that is probably the number one thing that rises to the top, is that it’s hard to raise money in comparison to their white counterparts, to their male counterparts. It’s hard to get campaign staff that actually can put forth products and put forth a campaign that’s in their voice, because these are folks who are cookie cutting from campaign to campaign, instead of understanding that a Black woman’s voice and a Black woman’s way of running a campaign might be different, not always, but it might be different, and for us to not have just across the board, campaign managers, finance directors, who don’t understand the importance and the uniqueness of a Black woman or a woman of color running, we need more of that, and so those are probably the top two issues that we’re seeing.  

McNamara: Does that surprise you? Since one of the key pillars of the Democratic base are Black women. 

Taylor: Yeah, and Black women, we have been key to the Democratic party. We have been a very strong voting block. We have been essentially the architects, the purveyors, if you will, of democracy, and for us to not be at the helm, at the vanguard, and the forefront, is a problem. And I think that the Democratic Party, it’s high time for them to step up—and I think that they are—to see the uniqueness that Black women bring and the community and the network that comes with Black women, because we are at the center of our communities, we help support our immediate families. I was just on the doors with a woman who was talking about making sure she got to all of her neighbors on her block, that they got out and voted, or they submitted their absentee ballot, and so this is the work that Black women have been doing to ensure that they can feed their families, to ensure that they can go to work and not worry about being treated unfairly, and that’s the only way that they can do it if they do it themselves.