On Hand

On this Stateside podcast, we hear from Michigan State University mathematician, Albert Cohen, on how we can use statistics to fill out our March Madness brackets. 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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On this Stateside podcast, Michigan Public's political director gets context and details about Michigan's new minimum wage and sick leave rules from Sean Egan. He oversees the State's Bureau of Employment Relations and the Wage and House Divisions, also know as LEO.

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Mary Frances Phillips' "Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins” is a biography of the party's longest serving woman.

 

GUEST:
Mary Frances Phillips, author of Black Panther Woman and associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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President Donald Trump nominated Dearborn Heights mayor Bill Bazzi as his ambassador to Tunisia. He’s also selected Hamtramck mayor Amer Ghalib as his ambassador to Kuwait.

Both men have been at the center of contentious conversations about local policies and culture. 

A reporter who's been covering their careers joined us to provide some context. 

Find Niraj Warikoo's coverage here.

GUEST:
Niraj Warikoo, reporter for The Detroit Free Press

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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With just a few weeks' worth of data available, it's hard to say how immigration enforcement under the current Trump administration compares to that of previous years.

Michigan Public's data reporter helps us understand what we can determine from the available data, and what to be mindful of as we see other numbers cited on social media and in the news. 

Find Adam's FAQ page on immigration data below:

Here’s what we know about immigrants, visas, DACA, ICE and more in Michigan

 

GUEST:
Adam Yahya Rayes, data reporter, Michigan Public

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Michigan’s marijuana enthusiasts pay a small price – the lowest price per ounce of marijuana in the country. But Whitmer recently proposed a 32% tax hike on wholesale marijuana products as part of her “Mi Road Plan” to help fund roads.

The 32% tax would be atop the current 10% excise tax and the 6% sales tax on marijuana products. This added cost would be passed to consumers, which would drive these record-low prices even lower, and Michigan marijuana businesses worry this will shut down already struggling doors.

In the past year, adult-use marijuana costs have dropped nearly 30%, from a little over $90 to just around $65 per ounce of marijuana. Crain’s Reporter Dustin Walsh told Stateside that the tax hike would hurt the state’s marijuana growers.

“The real issue is that these cultivators in these processes just aren't paying that wholesale tax now, and they're relying on the retail outlets to sell the product and return the money to them,” Walsh said.

In her press release, Whitmer wrote that the tax hike would fund roads with an additional $470 million. In the 2024 fiscal year, the state received more than $331 million from the Michigan Marijuana Regulation Fund. Michael Ward, CEO of marijuana grower Harbor Farmz, said that the tax hike would take money away from both Michigan and its cannabis industry.

“It's like a catch-22-tax-us-to-death, which is going to kill us. Well, if the taxes see death and we all die, they will not get the money that they're looking for from the tax revenue from the cannabis industry, which is also already contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to municipalities and the state.”

Businesses also worry that the tax proposal could revive the black market. Low marijuana prices kept the product in the legal market because the black market couldn’t sell it at a cheaper rate. The tax hike could change that.

Walsh said desperate marijuana businesses might have higher incentive to participate in the illicit market.

“You're now going to create more desperate operators, more cultivators and processors that are desperate because now that money, they owe more money now in taxes,” Walsh said. “And if it drives them into more desperate situations, you're going to see them potentially loading trucks up with marijuana and shipping it to markets where it's more expensive or doing other illicit market products.”

The adult-use marijuana market is still relatively new, meaning that everyone is dealing with the “growing pains,” according to Walsh.

For now, he said the Michigan legislature seemed to have taken a step back from the proposal once reporting came out.

CORRECTION FROM EDITOR: A previous version of this audio story inverted and misattributed Michael Ward and Chris Jacobson's quotes. The story was updated at 11:00am on March 12, 2025.

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A resolution in the state House is aimed at discouraging cities and universities from having policies that limit their interactions with federal immigration officials. We talked about what the new rule means, and how one city is thinking about the impact to its bottom line. 

GUESTS:

Michelle Jokisch Polo, Stateside producer 

Milinda Ysasi, Grand Rapids city commissioner 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Yumna Jawad, known across social media Feel Good Foodie, shared the Ramadan meals that make her excited about the holiday season.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Thousands of federal workers have been laid off in recent weeks. In Michigan that includes employees from the VA hospital, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Forest Service. These layoffs are a result of President Trump’s initiative to cut federal spending.

Emily Davies, a reporter for the Washington Post has been covering the impact of the Department of Government Efficiency—commonly referred to as DOGE—on federal agencies. In her latest article, Davies tells the story of Riley Cooper, a Trump supporter from Baldwin, MI who was laid off from the U.S. Forest Service.

In Cadillac, Marie Richards was laid off in mid-February from her job as a tribal relations specialist with the Huron-Manistee National Forests.

Richards, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, worked as its historic preservation and repatriation specialist before taking the Forest Service job in December of 2023. She was one of thousands of probationary U.S. Forest Service workers laid off as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut costs and reduce the size of the federal government.

That story came from Interlochen Public Radio climate reporter Izzy Ross. 

Background reading:

She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this

U.S. Forest Service firings decimate already understaffed agency: ‘It’s catastrophic’

 

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The 25% tariffs issued against all Mexican and Canadian imports are cause for major concern for the auto industry, according to Jamie Butters, executive editor of Automotive News.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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