By Eddie B. Allen Jr. The Detroit Metro Times is covering the case of Mario Willis, who supporters say was wrongfully sentenced for up to 30 years behind bars following a 2008 fire that resulted in the death of Walter Harris, a Detroit firefighter. As part of the investigation, the Metro Times’ telephone calls and emails seeking interviews from the Detroit Fire Department were not answered, and Michigan Freedom of Information Act requests for fire and police investigation records remain unanswered by the City of Detroit. Fred Vultee, a Wayne State University journalism instructor whose courses address reporting about government agency operations, says withholding public information hinders citizen trust. “In my journalism professor capacity, I’d say that’s not cool. That’s not how it’s supposed to work,” Vultee said. “Whether it’s for good or ill, we don’t attached any blame to people who say, ‘I’m just trying to protect my friends.’ The point is to make sure that matters are being done and addressed in the public’s interest.”

There are hidden metabolic health impacts in things that most people encounter every day. From surface cleaners to silicone wristbands, from fracking fluids to wastewater – even household dust – these diverse environmental mixtures have a potential to disrupt human health. Christopher Kassotis, an assistant professor in the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, has received a $598,487 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take a deeper dive into evaluating environmental mixtures. “Anything we know about chemical toxicity is based on testing that individual chemical, but we are never exposed to just one single chemical alone,” Kassotis said. “Humans are regularly exposed to hundreds or thousands of chemicals every day. Our regulatory system completely ignores this, in part due to difficulties sorting out how to examine mixtures and predict effects.”  

On Monday afternoon, a video involved Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown went viral. St. Brown shared an intimate conversation with a young Lions fan named Lucas, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. After the game, St. Brown reached out on Twitter to see if anyone could find Lucas so that he could send him an autographed game jersey. Lucas’ dad quickly responded. A special moment like this doesn’t happen without some helpful people behind the scenes, including Lions linebacker Anthony Pittman, Lions Manager of Player and Alumni Relations Maurice Pearson and Ryan Newcom. Newcom is Lucas’ cousin, and he is also a former teammate of Pittman’s from their days at Wayne State. Newcom reached out to Pittman, hoping to create a special day for Lucas.

By Louis Jacobson By all indications, former President Donald Trump is preparing to announce his 2024 presidential bid, possibly as soon as an event Nov. 15 at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Could his status as a presidential candidate limit his exposure in several continuing legal battles? Legal experts told Politifact that Trump wouldn’t benefit in any official way by formally announcing his candidacy, especially two years ahead of the next election. And the unofficial benefits would be modest at best. “While being a declared candidate doesn’t afford him any legal protections, it does enable him to claim that any investigation is politically motivated,” said Elise Bean, a former congressional investigator for then-Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who now works for the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at the Wayne State University Law School.

By Duante Beddingfield Wayne State University will bid farewell to its Hilberry Theatre on Nov. 20, after the venue hosts its final performance. Over the past 58 years, more than 600 productions have been mounted in the space. Following its closing, it will be transformed into the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center. “There is a great sense of readiness, joy and anticipation that everyone is feeling,” said Mary Anderson, chair of Wayne State’s Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance. “We do not feel like we are saying goodbye to the former Hilberry space, so much as we are making way for the incredible opportunity to build the Valade, a world-class jazz center that will feature our extraordinary educational music programming and also welcome guests from all over the world.”

By Jena Brooker Detroit is a national leader for the most preterm births – and Wayne State University is setting up a new research center to collect more data on why. WSU in September received an $11.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how one type of air pollution – volatile organic compounds, or VOCs – contribute to preterm births. The five-year grant has funded the formation of the Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness and Research (CLEAR), where researchers will study the link between VOCs and adverse birth and health outcomes. “There really hasn’t been a significant body of work that’s been done till this point in time trying to understand the environmental link to that [preterm birth] rate,” said Carol Miller, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Wayne State and co-leader of the new center. Melissa Runge-Morris, a physician and co-leader of CLEAR, said the medical field is lagging in its understanding of how environmental factors contribute to health outcomes compared to lifestyle and genetic factors. “As far as environmental exposures, all of medicine is playing catch up,” she said. “We’re no different here in Detroit.”

By Kirsten Matoy Carlson  Kirsten Matoy Carlson, professor of law and adjunct professor of political science at Wayne State University, wrote an article for The Conversation providing context for a forthcoming Supreme Court case about the constitutionality of a 1978 law enacted to protect Native American children in the U.S. and strengthen their families. The law, the Indian Child Welfare Act, was originally passed by Congress in response to requests from tribal leaders and other advocates for Native Americans to stop states from removing Indian children from their families. Now, in the case before the Supreme Court, non-Indians seeking to adopt or foster Indian children have challenged provisions of the law. The non-Indians say the law illegally discriminates against the Indian children based on their race and tells states officials what to do. As a federal Indian law scholar and the mother of two Indian children, Matoy Carlson writes that she knows Indian status is a political, not a racial, designation.  

By Philip Marcelo The claim that voters in Detroit were prevented from casting ballots on Election Day after officials mistakenly said they’d already voted by absentee ballot is false. Certain polling locations in Detroit had an issue checking-in voters on Tuesday morning, but that was due to a data glitch that was quickly resovled, state and city officials confirmed. No eligible voters were prevented from casting a ballot. “Minor technical glitches are not unusual in any precinct because administering elections is a complex business,” said Liette Gidlow, history professor at Wayne State University.

As Americans vote in the 2022 midterm elections, U.S. President Joe Biden warns that democracy is at risk. In a speech less than a week before voting day, Biden blamed false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent for eroding trust in U.S. democracy. Kidada Williams, associate professor of history at Wayne State University, participates in a podcast discussion about the United States’ crafting of democracy after the Civil War during Reconstruction.