WCMU Highlights

Michigan Senate Democrats announced a plan Wednesday they say will support parents of young children. The proposal, dubbed “Building Blocks,” falls into three parts.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that she will travel to Washington D.C. soon to lobby federal officials against proposed big cuts to the U.S. Department of Education and new tariffs against Canada and other trading partners.

John Sheffler, creator, producer and host of WCMU's Our Front Porch, is set to give a talk at Lake Superior State University highlighting the Irish bands he featured on the program during its 35-year run. His program will be in LSSU's Library Commons Thursday at 7 p.m.

Protesters gathered in Mount Pleasant to voice their concerns about a budget resolution passed by House Republicans in February. The resolution instructs the Energy and Commerce committee, which oversees Medicaid, to slash $880 billion over the next decade, which could affect millions of Michiganders.

"The governor has a lot of leeway and control over calling the election itself," Reporter AJ Jones told WCMU's All Things Considered host David Nicholas. "The constitution says the governor 'may call a special election.'”

"These holds on these grants have the potential to disrupt services and payroll for personnel if it continues,” said Kevin Sweeney, deputy state director of emergency management for the Michigan State Police.

Four people have been charged in the death of a 5-year-old boy who was killed inside a pressurized oxygen chamber at a medical facility in suburban Detroit. Michigan’s attorney general says Thomas Cooper from Royal Oak, Michigan, was “incinerated” when the hyperbaric chamber exploded in January at the Oxford Center in Troy. The center's founder and three others were arrested Monday on charges including second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. Arraignments are scheduled Tuesday afternoon. A lawyer for one defendant told the AP he wants to remind everyone that "this was an accident, not an intentional act."

Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist launched his campaign Tuesday to try and become the first gubernatorial running mate to ascend to the top spot in over 40 years as well as the first Black governor of Michigan.

The Ontario government announced it’s charging an extra 25 percent on all electricity exports to the U.S. Monday.The provincial government says that’ll impact 1.5 million homes spread across Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. Ontario said that could cost up to $400,000 each day the surcharge is in place, blaming tariffs from the Trump Administration for the move.

Organizers now plan weekly protests at the Tesla showroom in Kentwood, near Grand Rapids.