For decades, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has been working with Gelman Sciences to clean-up the 1,4 Dioxane chemical the company released in certain parts of Ann Arbor. To this day, the DEQ continues to say the levels are below their precautionary standards and are not harmful. To give voice to concerned residents, city, county and state officials put together Thursday night's town hall forum.

This week on Art and Soul, local journalist and blogger Jenn McKee joins me to talk about many of the upcoming shows and events in our area. Director Joe York from PTD Productions in Ypsilanti also joins the conversation to talk about the theater company's upcoming production of "Noises Off."

It's been a journey for voters who were hoping Bernie Sanders would win the White House. It was an unlikely candidacy that started small and built into a movement for democratic socialism. Hillary Clinton is a far more traditional Democrat and ended up winning the party's nomination for President. When Sanders bowed out, many of his supporters vowed to protest by not casting a vote, at all. Then, Donald Trump won the Republican nomination. This is where some of Washtenaw County's Sanders

Every week during the University of Michigan's football season, a group of Ann Arbor women make sure the players get a taste of "home" by baking them cookies. Known as the "Cookie Ladies," the women bake up an assortment of cookies which are delivered to the team for every home and away game. I spoke with the lead baker, Ann Arbor resident Penny Griffin.

The Rotary Club of Ann Arbor, along with the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, will host an event this evening to help mark World Polio Day.

The Ann Arbor Police Department continues to look for ways to improve community relations. It hopes a television show that airs on the local access channel CTN can contribute to that.

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has conditionally appointed a county administrator.

The business value of joy. Richard Sheridan is the owner of Menlo Innovations in Ann Arbor and the author of a book called "Joy, Inc." He started working as a computer programmer before he could even drive a car back in the early '70s. He got a couple of degrees in computer science and computer engineering at the University of Michigan and settled in the area which he says is a great area to run a software business. He talks about what lead him to write the book "Joy, Inc." He also talks about

How big of a role does texting play in your life? I talked with Anne Curzan, a professor of English language and literature, linguistics, and education from the University of Michigan about how it's changing the way we write and communicate. Curzan says texting has become "the wild west of the written language," and she sees it as another genre of writing.

A new light-up street party called "ypsiGLOW" will be taking place in downtown Ypsilanti on October 27th. The creators of Festifools and FoolMoon helped create the glowout block party for every age. I spoke with Shary Brown, the president of Wonderfool Productions, and Adriana Zardus, the company's production coordinator, about how this event is intended to get the community involved on another level where people are creating the event themselves.