MichMash preview's Michigan's midterm election alongside MLive's Dani James as well as Michigan Democratic Chair Curtis Hertel and Michigan Republican Cahri Jim Runestad.
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Political activists on both sides of the aisle are reaching for a group of voters who are sometimes undecided, especially when it comes to the Senate race.
The post Jewish residents generally vote Democrat. Will this election be different? | The Metro appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
“Nobody wants the job, it’s really a lot of work," says Courtland Township Clerk Sue Hartman.
The post The struggle to build trust in local elections is pushing this clerk into retirement | The Metro appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
Gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson outlines her goals for the position, emphasizing affordability, education, relationships with Washington and AI safety nets for Michiganders.
The post Jocelyn Benson focuses on costs in her run for governor appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
A Ferndale activist says the surveillance technology is dangerous.
The post The Metro: This local organizer is against Flock cameras. Here’s why. appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
"Never fight the urge to give" is the motto driving the Democratic state Representative and Congressional primary winner.
The post The Metro: Donavan McKinney hopes to inject more humanity in politics appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
El-Sayed has spent the better part of a year in barns, union halls, and kitchens in towns big and small across the state to pick up some support among independents and disenchanted conservative voters.
The post Abdul El-Sayed courts Upper Peninsula voters in Michigan U.S. Senate race appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
In this episode
The gubernatorial race is hitting a critical point as we are less than a month away from the midterm elections. This week on MichMash, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow discuss how campaign funds might make a difference in the race for governor.
We also have the second round of Big Deal, Little Deal!
Later in the episode, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson stops by to make her case for governor.
Benson said there is one reason why she believes she is the better candidate: “Our campaign is about 3 things: driving down costs, increasing wages, and ending corruption. To lead government to show up everywhere we don’t want it instead of where we need it. It really comes down to: who do we want the government to work for the people or the powerful?”
MichMash has reached out to Rep. John James for an interview, but he has declined.
The midterm elections will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.
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The Wayne County Election is set to count the missing ballots in Hamtramck’s mayoral race tomorrow at noon.
The 37 absentee ballots were found in the city clerk’s office just days after the election. A Wayne County Circuit judge has ordered that the ballots must be counted despite a year-long legal battle.
Currently, Adam Alharbi is the mayor, contested by former Hamtramck city council member Muhith Mahmood.
Despite the results, Alharbi will continue to challenge Mahmood’s residency in a separate lawsuit. CBS News reports the recount could lead to three different possible outcomes: Alharbi retains the seat, Muhith wins the seat but is not able to get certified without the court’s approval or the seat becomes vacant.
A court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22 to review the developments.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced a bill to ban federal funding for surveillance products such as Flock Safety cameras as well as facial recognition technology.
Flock Safety says its automated license plate readers and other products have helped police catch criminals and lower crime. Inkster resident Charles Stephens says he originally thought the cameras could stop reckless driving on his street. Now he’s not so sure about that.
“They (drivers) run stop signs. There’s a playground right across the street. Some kids live two doors down. They run across the street to the playground…the camera doesn’t detect speed.”
Tlaib and other critics say authorities could use surveillance data to stalk people to stifle free speech.
Federal regulators are approving a new plan to remove a fuel assembly at the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan.
Holtec International owns the plant. It’s been working to bring Palisades back online after it went into decommissioning in 2022. As workers began to load fuel in the reactor in August, one fuel assembly tipped.
The company said it’ll need to retrieve the assembly from the reactor in order to load any more fuel. Some critics argued the plan creates new risks without understanding the root cause. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff say they found no significant hazards.
The City of Detroit Department of Elections is hosting their Get Out to Vote event.
The Scarefest and voter event will take place at the Northwest Activities Center. That’s at 18100 Meyers Road, Detroit, MI.
People can vote that day, engage in family activities and receive resources & giveaways. It takes place on Saturday, Oct. 24 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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The post Detroit Evening Report: Hamtramck mayoral election vote recount appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
Where politics is concerned, many are unhappy. A recent poll found roughly 80% of Americans think the country is in a crisis because we can’t agree with one another.
So how do we get out of it? The usual answer is the ballot box. Unfortunately, our elections systems don’t always incentivize change. That’s because America has a first-past-the-post electoral system, which means one winner for each seat.
If a candidate comes in second, they get nothing — no share of the power. A candidate only needs more votes than their opponent. They never need the people who disagree with them. Other countries hand out seats based on each party’s share of the vote. That forces parties to work together to govern.
As some see it, rewriting our state constitution is one way to break the gridlock. It’s on the ballot next month. If passed, Proposal 1 would trigger a constitutional convention next year.
Interestingly, groups across the political spectrum oppose it. Recent polling suggests most Michigan voters do, too.
Quinn Yeargain is the innagural 1855 Professor of the Law of Democracy at Michigan State University. He joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss why he says he won’t vote in favor of the proposal, and how we can create a politics that works for people.
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. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.
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The post The Metro: ‘Too many unknowns.’ Why many are against a constitutional convention appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
Michigan’s secretary of state runs the offices that renew licenses and register cars. The same office also runs elections in the state.
Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist is one of two people running for the position.
Gilchrist was a software engineer who then ran and lost a bid for Detroit City Clerk in 2017. Since 2018, he’s been lieutenant governor for the state. Now, he’s running for secretary of state after leaving the governor’s race.
Why? How did Gilchrist’s role of lieutenant governor prepare him to be secretary of state? Gilchrist spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.
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. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.
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A Detroit man was arrested Thursday for making threats against Mayor Sheffield.
Sterling Anthony Peters was charged after threatening Sheffield twice on Monday, Oct. 5. The first occurred when Peters entered the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center downtown, attempting to access Mayor Sheffield’s office.
When officers attempted to remove him, according to prosecutors, he threatened to “shoot up” the building.
Later, Peters entered the Detroit Police Headquarters, where he was promptly escorted out by officers. While they were doing so, he made another threat, this time to hurt Mayor Sheffield directly.
In court Thursday, Peters’ attorneys suggested he may be dealing with a mental health crisis, as he has recently faced a death in the family.
In a statement released Thursday, Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy asserted her zero-tolerance policy on threats of this nature.
“We will absolutely not tolerate threats to elected officials including our judges. These threats are on the rise and are extremely concerning. We will prove the charge in this case in court beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Peters was arraigned Thursday on one count of making a false report or threat of terrorism. He received a $50,000 bond and is currently on house arrest.
The post Detroit man threatens Mayor Sheffield, Wayne County Prosecutor fires back appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
Costs continue to rise in Michigan for things like gas, groceries and utilities
In March, a DTE rate hike increased bills by 4.6% for a typical customer. Two months later, a Consumers Energy rate hike also increased rates by 6.1%, its second electric increase in a year.
Recent rate hikes and power outages have spurred a lot of anger and frustration.
As some residents in Ann Arbor see it, one solution is to replace DTE with a city-owned utility.
A proposal on the November ballot would modify Ann Arbor’s city charter, clearing the way for a public municipal utility board.
Supporters say a city-owned utility would mean lower bills, more renewable energy, and fewer outages. Michigan already has about 20 city-owned electric utilities, including Chelsea, and Lansing.
Getting Proposal E onto the ballot took a court battle.
In August, the Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition sued the city, arguing the petitions fell short. DTE also paid for this group’s cost study. A Washtenaw County judge threw that case out. The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed last month.
Then, last week, Ann Arbor’s own city council voted 10-1 to oppose Proposal E and directed its city attorney to challenge it in court. Many residents at the council meeting were upset.
Why is Ann Arbor’s city council fighting a ballot question its own voters put there? And who gets to decide whether that vote counts?
Erica Briggs is an Ann Arbor city council member. She voted in favor of the resolution. She spoke with The Metro’s Robyn Vincent.
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
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The post The Metro: Many Ann Arbor residents want a public utility to replace DTE. Its city council believes that’s reckless. appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
In this episode
The midterms are less than a month away, and there is one race that hasn’t received as much attention as the others. This week on MichMash, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben discuss the race and talk to the candidates running in it.
With such a high-profile midterm election, the race for attorney general has flown under the radar for much of the campaign season. Republican Doug Lloyd, the Eaton County prosecutor, is running against Democrat Eli Savit, the current Washtenaw County prosecutor. Both candidates are facing questions from critics. Lloyd is being questioned about whether he would be beholden to the Trump administration. He says he has never even met the president.
“I made it clear from day one, when I got into this race, that the attorney general’s responsibility is to protect Michigan’s sovereignty. I’ve never met Donald Trump. You know, I’ve never spoken to Donald Trump. I’ve only seen Donald Trump, you know, on TV like him, most of America.”
Savit is being questioned about whether he would push Washtenaw County’s policies on the whole state. He says he wouldn’t.
“I believe that these types of decisions are appropriately made by local prosecutors, you know, and I’m not running to take Washtenaw County’s policies, statewide. Nor could I, even if I wanted to.”
The midterm elections are Nov. 3, 2026.
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The post MichMash: Which Michigan midterm race is not being talked about; The premiere of Big Deal, Little Deal appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
Michigan’s secretary of state oversees license renewals, car registrations and elections — the voter rolls, the rules clerks follow, and the certification of results. Jocelyn Benson is term-limited. Two candidates are running to replace her.
Anthony Forlini is the Republican. He’s the Macomb County clerk and register of deeds, and he spent six years in the state House and six as Harrison Township supervisor.
This year Forlini has been looking for noncitizens on Michigan’s voter rolls. In January he said he found 15 in Macomb County. In May he said he found seven more. The state reviewed all 15 names and found at least three of those people are citizens.
A separate state review of the 2024 election found noncitizen voting is extremely rare — 16 ballots out of roughly 5.7 million. Nessel charged five people in August.
The Metro’s Robyn Vincent spoke with Forlini about how rare noncitizen voting is and what he’d do as secretary of state.
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, the Democrat in the race, joins The Metro next week.
Editor’s note: Forlini said noncitizens are turning up for jury duty in Macomb County. People there have claimed not to be citizens to get excused — but whether they are in fact noncitizens is not established.
The jury pool comes from driver’s license records, and Michigan doesn’t require citizenship for a license. Election administrators note that people sometimes claim noncitizenship to avoid jury duty.
He also said 96% of Republicans and Democrats voted for his bills in the Legislature. The Metro has not verified that.
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
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The citywide coalition MoveDetroit is announcing the first 13 winners of a grant aimed at increasing and stabilizing the city’s population.
The initial Make Detroit Home awards are worth $15,000 each.
One of the recipients is local entrepreneur Karissma Yve. She says she will use the money to invest in scaling her business.
“We hire from the city right in our community. We are excited to grow both our factory and the work that we’re doing here…I’m really excited and honored to be able to…invest (it) back into the company, but ultimately (it’s) the investment into the people in the community that we’re hiring from.”
The coalition will offer another 300 grants of $1,000 each to assist current and future Detroiters with business projects, down payments, home renovations, rent and relocation assistance.
Multiple Michigan universities got failing grades in a college free speech survey. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) conducted the study for the seventh year.
It found students felt like they can’t speak on controversial topics openly on campus.
Data analyst Chapin Lenthall-Cleary says university policies, behaviors and student responses were evaluated.
“Our goal is to protect free speech rights, both on and off campus, for all Americans…for instance, (with) the college free speech rankings…students can have a more informed idea of what the speech climate is at schools they’re considering attending.”
The University of Michigan and Central Michigan University got “F” grades for free speech and Wayne State University got a “D.”
(This story was edited on October 14, 2026 to correct the name of the source.)
A Detroit city councilmember wants an 18-month moratorium on Al data centers while the city figures out how to regulate the facilities.
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero has asked council attorneys to draft an interim zoning measure that would pause permitting through March 2028.
Detroit city planners are separately developing zoning rules addressing data center infrastructure and environmental impacts.
Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration says it has effectively paused permits for new principal-use data centers while those regulations are being considered but her office has not formally adopted the moratorium previously requested by council.
Detroit election officials say about 20,000 absentee ballots have been returned with less than a month remaining before the November election.
The city mailed roughly 100,000 absentee ballots between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24.
Detroit has 38 absentee ballot drop boxes across the city. Election officials say the early return rate is encouraging as they prepare for the Nov. 3 election.
The post Detroit Evening Report: First 13 winners of Make Detroit Home grant announced appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
Many couldn’t tell you what an attorney general does. But in Michigan, a lot of people know the name Dana Nessel.
She was the lead lawyer in the Michigan case that helped bring marriage equality to the nation. Then she became this state’s top attorney. For eight years she’s been unabashed about her politics and about who she is.
Dana Nessel’s office won convictions against nine clergymen for abuse going back decades. It won more than $1.5 billion from opioid manufacturers. It fought utility companies over the cost of electric bills. And it sued the federal government — many times over.
To some, Nessel’s become one of Michigan’s strongest defenders. To others, she’s gone too far.
A new Michigan law says whoever replaces Nessel in January cannot sue the federal government without permission from state lawmakers. Republican state House Speaker Matt Hall pushed for the law. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed it.
Attorney General Dana Nessel spoke with host Robyn Vincent about the battles she’s fought and why.
She said her office has contested every utility rate hike request since she took office — roughly $4.7 billion saved for ratepayers, by its own count — and that the system is broken anyway.
Vincent asked how she squares that fight with a governor of her own party who appoints the commissioners approving those rates, and Nessel she would not have made Whitmer’s appointments to the Michigan Public Service Commission, and that the governor could have reappointed former Commissioner Alessandra Carreon, who Nessel said sometimes deferred to her office’s arguments.
Carreon’s successor, Commissioner Shaquila Myers, was “well known — I’ll just say it — to be in the pocket of DTE,” Nessel said. She added that during Myers’ time as chief of staff to then-House Speaker Joe Tate, bills the utilities opposed “would somehow end up” quashed.
The Metro sought comment from the Public Service Commission and from the governor’s office.
Governor Whitmer’s chief of staff, Zack Pohl, said in a statement: “Shaquila Myers is one of the sharpest policy minds in the state, and she has dedicated her entire career to public service. She is a person of high integrity who is respected on both sides of the aisle.”
The Public Service Commission said in a statement that over more than 20 years in public service, Myers has been chief of staff to the lieutenant governor, a senior adviser to the governor and chief of staff to the speaker of the House. “During her time in the latter role, Michigan enacted a sweeping package of legislation that puts Michigan on a path toward 100% clean energy by 2040,” the statement said. “As she has from the beginning of her time on the MPSC, Commissioner Myers asks to be judged by her work at the Commission, including contributing to Michigan’s best affordability ranking in a decade and to enacting some of the nation’s strongest protections to prevent customers from having to bear any costs associated with data centers. She aims to continue that work during the coming years on the Commission.”
Nessel disputes that last point. In the same interview, she said that under the commission’s approval of power contracts for a Google data center in Van Buren Township, “the ratepayers are absolutely not protected at all.”
After the interview, the commission offered to make Chair Dan Scripps and Commissioner Myers available to appear on WDET. The Metro has invited Myers.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with statements from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office and the Michigan Public Service Commission.
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
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Hamtramck’s last mayoral election is still disputed.
A judge has ordered that the 37 absentee ballots found in the former city clerk’s office must be counted, despite a year-long legal battle. The candidates are former Hamtramck city council member Muhith Mahmood and current Hamtramck Mayor Adam Alharbi.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers originally decided not to count the 37 ballots, which were turned in days after the election.
Alharbi’s attorney says they are ready to challenge the ballots, even if they end up being counted, according to WXYZ.
They also plan to continue challenging Mahmood’s residency, despite a Wayne County judge dismissing a lawsuit over his residency last December.
Forgotten Harvest is hoping to harvest 1 million lbs of food by the end of the year to feed people in need.
Lori Setera is the assistant farm manager at the Forgotten Harvest Farms in Fenton, Michigan. She says a pound of food is equal to a meal.
“Our food here goes farmers market style, just how you see it here in these crates. A lot of our brick-and-mortar pantry partners don’t have the equipment or the space to store these giant crates. Because of that, a lot of it ends up in mobile pantries.”
The farm supplements nutritious foods the organization distributes. They grow about 20 different crops such as cabbage, corn, broccoli, and peppers.
Around 3,000 volunteers are needed annually to help plant, weed and harvest food. Forgotten Harvest Farms still needs more volunteers to meet their goal this year.
The Collaborative to End Race-Based Medicine-Detroit and Wayne State University’s Office of Inclusive Excellence are hosting a virtual summit about race-based medicine.
The National Institutes of Health defines race-based medicine as “treating race as a biological or genetic trait rather than a social construct.” This leads to misdiagnoses and poor health care outcomes for minority patients—especially for those in the Black community.
The collaborative is made up of international clinicians, legislators, industry leaders and community members working toward ending race-based medicine through education, research and advocacy.
Panelists at the virtual summit will discuss how bias shapes health care and public health in an age of artificial intelligence.
They will talk about how technology can help identify bias and potentially prevent harm.
The “Held to the Light: Race, Code & Consequence in the Age of AI” event takes place Oct. 29 from 3 – 5 p.m. Register for the event here.
The InterFaith Council of Metropolitan Detroit is hosting a program highlighting coming-of-age traditions.
The Rites of Passage Coming of Age Across Religions event will feature a bar/bat mitzvah, a confirmation, a Hindu tradition and a Muslim rite of passage.
The program will talk about what it means for family, faith, identity and belonging.
It will be held Thursday, Oct. 8 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the North Congregation Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The event is free with registration.
The post Detroit Evening Report: Hamtramck’s 2025 mayoral election still disputed appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
State and local leaders announced a new waterway cleanup project in Detroit. The “Reclaim the Rivers” initiative will put close to $90 million toward removing toxic sediment, restoring fish habitat and public works projects along the Detroit and Kalamazoo rivers.
The money comes from settlements with polluters. It could attract federal and private funding. Detroit City Councilman Scott Benson says some of the cleanup has already started. He says the extra funding will help make more of the river usable.
“Now that we have our federal and state partners coming in with the resources to be able to help, you can see what the results are and how families are flocking. As we clean up and expose more spaces to recreational uses, it allows more families to come down and enjoy our riverfront.”
Both the Detroit and Kalamazoo rivers are listed as federal areas of concern for the Great Lakes region.
Wayne County commissioners are unanimously supporting a package of community benefits and tax incentive for a proposed Google data center in Van Buren Township.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans had vetoed the incentives arguing Google proposing the massive date center gave officials too little time to analyze impact on the environment. Equal Opportunity Housing Commissioner Allen Wilson voted for the tax breaks in part, he says, to show “solidarity among his fellow members.”
“No disrespect to Chief Executive Evans. I think he does a great job for the county. At the end of the day, we have got to make a determination. We have to stand strong as a commission. If we don’t stand strong as a commission, folks (will) keep stepping on you.”
For his part, County Executive Evans says he will work with the commission on the data center plan going forward. Van Buren Township officials are scheduled to consider the final site plan for the center in about two weeks.
The Detroit Lions have a nationally broadcast Sunday night game on NBC. They match up against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The 2-1 Lions will try to build off of their last win against the 1-2 Panthers. Kickoff is at 8:20 p.m.
If you have the chance this weekend, check out the UniverSoul Circus at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre.
You’ll be able to see Detroit’s own Fresh the Clownsss who brings a blend of Detroit Jit dancing and high-energy clowning. The show starts tonight at 7 p.m.
Additional performances taking place in October can be found here.
Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
The post Detroit Evening Report: ‘Reclaim the Rivers’ initiative budgets $90 million for clean-up and restoration appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
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