WMUK's WestSouthwest

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 woman Sally Hemings. LaNier speaks in Kalamazoo on Feb. 27.

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 than where they live now.

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 fort's exact location became something of a mystery. But in the late 1990's, members of the group Support the Fort asked WMU to help find it. That they did in 1998, although not in the place where many Niles residents thought it was. Listen to the podcast to learn more.

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’t save anybody, and he says it's no guarantee to prevent legal action. “If you’re going to get sued, and anybody can get sued for anything, it’s a matter of whether you win or not. But wouldn’t you rather get sued for trying to help than for doing nothing?”

The Michigan Campaign Finance Network looked into the connections between state lawmakers and non-profit groups that can accept unlimited donations from secret donors. The watchdog group’s director Craig Mauger says they found that a majority of lawmakers have ties to one of those groups. Mauger says the non-profit organizations don’t have to disclose their donors, so it creates secrecy around the relationship between lawmakers and people trying to influence them. While the non-profit groups are not supposed to participate in political activity, they do give lawmakers a chance to promote themselves to potential voters. Mauger says many times groups with business before a lawmaker donate money to a non-profit organization with ties to that state representative or senator.

Western Michigan University Political Science Professor Gunther Hega says now that Boris Johnson is Britain’s Prime Minister, it’s more likely that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. But Hega, who studies European politics says Johnson faces many challenges. Johnson was a major proponent of “Brexit,” the referendum to leave the EU that British voters approved in 2016. Hega says that sets him apart from previous prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May, even though both them also came from the UK’s conservative party.

Webb Miller was just trying to get a story when he became the news himself.

Kalamazoo resident Joetta Carr says the Southwest Michigan chapter of the Extinction Rebellion wants candidates for mayor and city commission to develop a climate policy for Kalamazoo. She says they are also working at the state level, and planning to go to the debates in Detroit for candidates running for the Democratic nomination for President. Carr was interviewed for a story in Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave . It’s part of the On the Ground Series telling stories from Kalamazoo’s neighborhoods. The project is now focused on the Vine Neighborhood . On the Ground Kalamazoo Project Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil says political activism, including around global issues is one of the things that stands out about the Vine Neighborhood.

A new exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum allows visitors to revisit two major freedom movements in U.S. history. It's called "Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963," and will be on view through Oct. 13.

Professor Nick Haddad says the rarest butterflies should be saved, because “People just should not be the cause of extinction.” Haddad, who is also senior terrestrial ecologist at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners has written a new book about rare butterflies.

Western Michigan University Economics Professor Susan Pozo says that when the debate over immigration heated up in 2016, it was important to hear from economists who had studied the issue. She says several of them came to the Western Michigan University campus during the 2016-17 academic year for the Economics Department’s Werner Sichel Lecture series. Note : This interview was originally heard in January. Pozo is the editor of The Human and Economic Implications of Twenty-First Century Immigration Policy . The book published by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research includes summaries of the work by the economists who spoke at Western that year.

"Up with hope, down with dope! Hugs, not drugs!'" These chants will echo down a few Kalamazoo streets on July 27. It's part of the Walk for Recovery that Mothers of Hope is trying in its fight to help people with drug addiction as the grassroots nonprofit marks its 20th anniversary, says Co-Founder Gwen Lanier. She hopes like-minded allies will come out.

The U.S. and Iran have a long and fraught history, including the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran. Dr. Michael Khaghany, a retired cardio thoracic surgeon in Kalamazoo, and native of Iran says Iranians don’t trust the U.S. or British governments. He says that’s because they helped orchestrate a coup against Prime Minster Mohammad Moassdegh in 1953.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer wants Michigan to be a leader on Great Lakes issues in the region. Senior Correspondent for Detroit Public Television’s Great Lakes Bureau Gary Wilson says that’s a position the state has enjoyed in the past. Wilson interviewed Whitmer recently during a conference in Milwaukee of U.S. governors and Canadian premiers from the Great Lakes region. In the interview, they discussed regional leadership and a potential new pipeline in the Great Lakes.

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.