MichMash Politics

Businesses across Michigan say they’re having a tough time finding enough workers. Cheyna Roth and Jake Neher talk with Sandy Levine, partner at Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails in Midtown Detroit, who says employers need to stop dehumanizing their workers if they want to staff up.

Local clerks and elections workers in Michigan are leaving their jobs in large numbers since the 2020 Election. MichMash hosts Jake Neher and Cheyna Roth talk with Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum about why that is and what it means for future elections.

There’s a new push to re-think juvenile justice in Michigan.

Jake Neher talks with Michigan Supreme Court Justice Beth Clement about the state’s new juvenile justice task force.

The Republican-led state Legislature continues a pattern of passing and touting new criminal justice reforms while hesitating - or refusing - to pay for them.

State environmental regulators are defending Michigan’s new standards for PFAS contamination in water. Those chemicals are linked to serious health problems including cancer.

MichMash hosts Jake Neher and Cheyna Roth talk with Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Liesl Clark about a lawsuit filed by chemical manufacturer 3M, her department's approval of permits to replace Line 5, and more.

Oil and gas are still flowing through Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. That’s despite Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shut it down. MichMash hosts Cheyne Roth and Jake Neher talk with MLive environmental reporter Garret Ellison about what happens next.

Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission has started its series of public meetings across the state. It is gathering input from residents about how they’d like the commission to draw the state’s new political maps. MichMash hosts Jake Neher and Cheyna Roth talk about one big question that keeps coming up during these meetings. And a conversation with redistricting expert Kimball Brace, whose company Election Data Services Inc. has been hired to help the commission draw Michigan's new maps.

The Whitmer administration is still handling a number of massive lawsuits that it inherited from former Governor Rick Snyder’s administration. MichMash hosts Jake Neher and Cheyna Roth talk with Gongwer Executive Editor and Publisher Zach Gorchow about what’s at stake with those lawsuits and how the governor and attorney general are handling them.

Michigan will lose a Congressional district next year. That’s after new Census results showed Michigan hasn’t been growing as fast as the rest of the country. MichMash hosts Jake Neher and Cheyna Roth talk about why the state has been lagging in population growth.

State lawmakers and advocates are renewing efforts to get rid of the sales tax on menstrual products in Michigan. MichMash hosts Cheyna Roth and Jake Neher talk about what makes this new push different than in years past. And they speak with 'Make Meaning' podcast host Lynne Golodner about what's happening here and abroad to end 'period poverty,' and about finding meaning in our lives during the pandemic.