Note: We're reposting WMUK's interview with Shannon Lanier to coincide with his appearance today on NPR. It originally published on Feb. 19, 2018. When Shannon LaNier was a boy, he told his classmates that President Thomas Jefferson was his great grandfather. His teacher didn't see how that was possible. LaNier looks black. She instructed him to stop lying. Now, he says, DNA and other evidence supports the story that had been passed down in his family of its connection to Jefferson and enslaved

West Michigan Congressman Fred Upton says a “red flag law” probably would have prevented the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. The St. Joseph Republican says other states have used red flag laws, and it should be implemented nationwide.

College campuses may be increasingly diverse, but incoming students are still often from segregated neighborhoods, meaning they "don't have much practice connecting across lines of difference," says race relations expert Beverly Tatum . So how will things ever improve in America?

This has been a busy summer for climate activists in Kalamazoo. They’re eager to mobilize amid warnings that the world faces catastrophe if it doesn’t drastically cut carbon emissions, and soon. For Kalamazoo Central High School teacher Josh Gottlieb, and rising senior Chloe Carlson, that means bringing the movement to school.

A longtime effort to bring a public defender's office to Kalamazoo County has succeeded. The nonprofit entity called Kalamazoo Defender opened for business on July 1 to work with income-challenged defendants. The Sixth Amendment guarantees Americans legal representation in criminal cases.

For five years, the Hidden Kalamazoo tour offered a different take on the history of the city’s downtown. It took people to storage areas, to basements and old apartments. They weren’t traditional historic sites, but they offered clues about how life has changed over the last 150 years.

Western Michigan University Geography Professor Jay Emerson says a drone that costs $1,000 can get pictures and video. However, he says analyzing that data and making maps from it is much more expensive.

Upjohn Institute for Employment Research Economist Evan Mast says allowing more expensive housing construction in a city can have a “ripple effect” that eventually makes it more affordable for middle income and working class residents. In his working paper, The Effect of New Market Rate Construction on the Low-Income Housing Market , Mast says allowing new high priced developments sets off a chain. As people move out of units with cheaper rates, those open up to renters who can pay a little more

What was life like in a colonial fort in southwest Michigan 300 years ago? Archaeologists from Western Michigan University are trying to find out. They and local volunteers have been digging at the site of Fort Saint Joseph in Niles since 2002. The fort was built along the banks of the Saint Joseph River by traders and Catholic missionaries from France in the 1680’s. Soldiers and Native American tribes also lived at and near the fort before in was abandoned after about a century. Over the years,

The Director of the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium says ideally there would be lifeguards on Great Lakes beaches, but he says in places where they aren’t on duty, people have to be extra vigilant to prevent drowning. Jamie Racklyeft says many local governments don’t want to hire lifeguards because of liability. He says municipal leaders are afraid that they can be sued if they post lifeguards at a beach and something happens. But Racklyeft says a sign that says “no lifeguard on duty” doesn