M.L. Elrick (@elrick), Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) and Shawn Windsor (@ShawnWindsor) are chillin’ like villains in the Red Shovel Network basement studios until Fox 2’s Rob Wolchek (@robwolchek) drops by and dominates the conversation — just like back at the station!

THE STRAIGHT DOPE:Shawn basks in praise for his Mother’s Day column in the Detroit Free Press, a superlative and sensitive essay.

M.L. is running on fumes after a late night presenting his latest investigation, about a Family Court judge responsible for getting kids out of abusive situations whose grandson says she put make-up on his bruises to help hide beatings. M.L. interviews both of them, and the judge denies covering up the abuse.

Marc asks M.L. who he believes, prompting M.L. to recite one of his mantras, that he is a reporter and therefore doesn’t have an opinion. But Marc does, which he shares with the world. Shawn speculates on the judge’s motives.

M.L. recites another of his mantras, that a reporter’s job is to ask questions, get answers, present his findings to the public, then let the people decide. Click on the link to watch his latest investigation before making up up your mind who is lying.

The conversation turns to the late, great Bob Berg, a confidante of some of Michigan’s most important people, ranging from Gov. William Milliken to Mayor Coleman Young to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who died of cancer last week at age 76.

M.L. laments that he now will never get a chance to sit with Berg and ask him to share all of the great inside stories he couldn’t talk about when he was advising Michigan’s most powerful men. Then M.L. tells some of his own Berg stories, including how a meeting with Berg helped him decide not to become Kilpatrick’s first press secretary. Shawn reminds M.L. of at least one other person he turned to for wisdom: Shawn!

Next, M.L. recounts a heated conversation with Berg after Kilpatrick’s disastrous 2008 State of the City speech, in which Hizzoner dropped the N-bomb and claimed he received countless threats. Berg reveals the true nature of the “threats” — and how Kilpatrick’s rant was a departure from his carefully scripted speech.