If you were with us Christmas week, you might have heard us talk to Majed Moughni, an attorney in Dearborn, Mich. Moughni has organized a rally later today for fellow Muslims to speak out against terrorism; he began organizing after the failed Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound jet.

[Asian carp showing their leaping ability in a pool in the Mississippi River]

There's a fight brewing with a specific fish breed in the Great Lakes region. The invasive Asian carp is ravaging the aquatic food chain for native fish, and making their way up the Mississippi toward the Great Lakes. Millions have been spent already on fencing and barriers to keep the carp from making it to open waters, but the measures appears to be failing. Ken DeBeaussaert, director of the Office of Great Lakes for Michigan, tells us about the impact this foreign species is having on domestic waterways.

 

 

Hundreds gathered at Michigan’s state capitol in Lansing, Mich., yesterday to protest budget cuts to school programs. To help explain what's going on right now in Michigan, we're joined by Craig Fahle from WDET in Detroit, where he hosts the talk show “Detroit Today.” Also with us is Casey Christensen, a first-grade teacher in Roseville, Mich. It's part of our week-long series on the impact of state budget cuts.

The FBI is reaching out to local imams and community leaders in Detroit after the leader of a radical Islamic group was killed in an FBI raid late Wednesday night. We discuss local reactions and the charges filed against others targeted in the raid with Craig Fahle, host of WDET's Detroit Today, and Victor Begg, chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan.

The national media has given prominent coverage to the woes of the Motor City. For example, Time recently embedded journalists in the city for over a year for its ambitious "Assignment Detroit" project. But while the national attention is (mostly) appreciated, insiders' eyes may turn out to be more valuable when it comes to looking for solutions to the city's troubles. Reporters at Detroit's public radio station, WDET, are crowd-sourcing plans for Detroit's recovery. They have been asking Detroit residents for their own voices and viewpoints in order to come up with plans to fix it. We find out more about the project from WDET news director Jerome Vaughn.

The Michigan Wolverines football team is in a heap of trouble. Not just because they had a deplorable 3-9 record last year that was an embarrassment to both the university and the state, but also from new allegations that surfaced this weekend in the Detroit Free Press. Ten current players, writing anonymously, asserted that the culture of off-season practice is beyond the legal NCAA limits. Former players also corroborated this. ...(continue reading)

General Motors says it will open a new plant to assemble battery packs for the soon-to-be released Chevy Volt, the company's new rechargeable electric car. The media blitz for the Volt began on Tuesday, focusing on the car's projected gas mileage (230 miles per gallon on city streets) and downplaying the car's hefty price tag ($40,000).

GM plans to open the battery plant in Wayne County, Michigan; it's expected to create 100 new jobs in the economically struggling county. We talk to New York Times auto industry reporter Nick Bunkley and Wayne County executive Robert Ficano about new cars and new jobs.

The number two automaker in the United States is enjoying a surge in sales, thanks to the federal government's "Cash for Clunkers" program. On Thursday, Ford announced it would be boosting production on both the Ford Focus and the Escape to keep up with demand. The company’s chief sales analyst, George Pipas, talks with us about Ford’s prospects. ... (click through for the full transcript)

President Obama's pledge to shut down the infamous federal detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by January 2010 means the administration needs to quickly find a place for the 229 detainees still housed there. After federal officials took a tour of the facility on Thursday, speculation mounted that the new Guantánamo might be a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan (population 1,581). We speak to Detroit Free Press reporter Kathleen Gray, who was at the prison during the tour, and to the mayor of Standish, Kevin King, about what this might mean for the town.

President Obama met with a group of U.S. state governors yesterday to talk about health care reform. Among those who spoke with the president was Michigan Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm. She’s been working to reform health care in Michigan. The state is struggling with an unemployment rate that reached 14.1 percent in May. The Governor joins The Takeaway this morning to talk about how the meeting went and what the most pressing concerns are in her state.

Click here for transcript

For more on President Obama's meeting with the governors, watch the video below.

Just yesterday, Detroit voters elected David Bing to be their new mayor. The former basketball star, now turned auto parts businessman, will serve the final eight months of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term. Mr. Bing narrowly defeated the interim mayor, City Council President Kenneth V. Cockrel, Jr. He is expected to be sworn in next week, but before that, he stops by The Takeaway to talk about his hopes for the future of Detroit.

What else is on David Bing's resume? He was a Detroit Piston with a mean hook shot:

Detroit voters went to the polls yesterday to elect an interim mayor to finish out disgraced, ousted, and convicted Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term. The winner? David Bing -- former star of the Detroit Pistons, turned local business leader. Despite trailing in the polls, Bing beat out Ken Cockrel, the man currently sitting in the mayor's office. The new mayor takes on a city in financial crisis. For more we turn to Noah Ovshinsky, a political reporter for WDET in Detroit, who has been covering the mayoral race.

The news is filled with stories of the economic beating Detroit, Michigan has taken lately, but the politics there aren't doing too well either. Today voters in Detroit will elect a new mayor after Kwame Kilpatrick was ousted from office and convicted of lying under oath. Two mayoral candidates, Dave Bing and Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr., are hoping to breath new life into the politically-beleaguered city. Joining us with all the details of the race is Noah Ovshinsky, a political reporter for WDET in Detroit.