• 
  
• The Main Event: Battle of the Presidents
  
  Maybe. Maybe not.
  
• Trump’s Peanut Gallery takes over the sliming of the criminal justice system
  
• Robert Kennedy’s running mate demonstrates her major qualification for office: donating another $8-million to prop up the campaign
  
• There’s another ethics embarrassment brewing in Lansing over lobbyist gifts of tickets to sporting events
  
• Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are the A-list of targets for the Biden campaign
  
• Lansing lawmakers file their first financial disclosures. We’ll learn more about that in a moment when we’re joined by award-winning Detroit News investigative reporter Craig Mauger
  
• Crowd shows up to back lawyer, ex-clerk facing charges over voter data breach – Detroit News
  
• Barra says GM will go ‘where the talent is’ to make software-driven cars – Detroit News
  
• Biden Levies Sweeping Tariffs on China, Intensifying Trade Fight With Trump – Wall Street Journal
  
• Small, well-built Chinese EV called the Seagull poses a big threat to the US auto industry – Detroit News
  
• House Democrats launch probe of Trump’s dinner with oil executives – The Washington Post
  
• Supreme Court orders Louisiana to use congressional map with additional Black district – AP News
  

Lansing has been a cornucopia of corruption, much of it first revealed through the efforts of an excellent band of investigative journalists. One of the best is Craig Mauger of the Detroit News. The Society of Professional Journalists named him Michigan Journalist of the Year in 2022 and this year honored him and Robert Snell for their reporting on a marijuana licensing corruption scandal involving former House Speaker Rick Johnson, Lansing lobbyists and secret payments that flowed to Johnson before he became the state’s top cannabis regulator.

Much of his reporting is built on the advice of Watergate’s famed background source for Woodward and Bernstein, known as Deep Throat, whose mantra was “follow the money”.

Craig follows the money … and quite often, what he finds is pretty shocking.

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

a full service survey research firm with expertise in:

• Public Opinion Surveys

• Market Research Studies

• Live Telephone Surveys

• On-Line and Automated Surveys

• Focus Group Research

• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns

• Political Campaigns & Consulting

• Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research

• Community – Media Relations

• Issue – Image Management

• Database Development & List Management

===========================