The Mitten Channel

Judge Herman Marable has served 20 years on the 68th District Court bench.  Over that time he has been active in helping high school students through his charitable initiative : Judge Marable's Student of the Month.  He describes how he has helped mentor Flint area youth to attend college and set goals for themselves.  His program has worked in conjunction with James Madison College at Michig...

From Flint Sandlots to the Big House and the NFL: The Paul Staroba Story”  Radio Free Flint with Arthur Busch In this episode of Radio Free Flint , host Arthur Busch sits down with Flint native and Greater Flint Sports Hall of Famer Paul Staroba to trace his journey from sandlot football on the east side of Flint to the University of Michigan and the National Football League . Staroba reflects on:...

State Representative Sheryl Kennedy (D-Davison) is a member of the Genesee County state legislative delegation.  Her career is off to an amazing start being named to a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee where she serves on subcommittees for School Aid & Education, Corrections and Agriculture.  Sheryl spent a career in education as a teacher in the Davison School District and l...

Flint Public Art Project a non-profit group has helped fuel the creation of over 100 new murals in the City of Flint. This year, the goal for 2020 is to add between 60 to 75 more and artists are needed to make that vision a reality.  Local and international muralists have come to  Flint and transformed many parts of the city with beautiful and thoughtful murals.  This projects has evolved into a a...

The Flint Golf Club has a place in Michigan history. It been host to the PGA Carling Open in the 1950's. It was where the legendary Arnold Palmer made his debut on the PGA tour. It also hosted Michigan Pro and Amateur championships.  There is a reason that PGA golfers, PGA Tour Officials, weekend duffers and others love this course.   Harry Barrett is one of those reasons. He has worked with...

In 1995, in Flint, Michigan Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch received a letter from a man in a prison cell in Starke, Florida.  The man wrote that he "wanted to get right with God" as he had just a short time to live.  He had been diagnosed with HIV-Aids.  His conscience was not clear and he did not want to die without revealing his responsibility for the murder of two men.  The Prison letter...

Judge Jessica Hammon has an unusual passion for community service and yoga.  The new Judge has taken her yoga practice so seriously that she has taken it to the Genesee Valley Regional Detention Center for Youths.  There she has introduced those youths detained to trauma based yoga.  The idea being the yoga experience will help deal with the stress and trauma they experienced. Governor Gretchen Wh...

Mary's Sunshine Dairy was the forerunner of the more current version of a Genesee County party  store.   Almost from the start they were victims of robbery.  Arthur tells the true crime story of one of the most sensational robbery-murders in Genesee County history, It was a triple murder execution style in the sleepy bedroom community of Flushing, Michigan. Party stores have become the focus...

At age 92, Harry Binder finished his last Bobby Crim Road Race.  The Binder Family is well known in the Flint area for their successful businesses.  During Harry Binder's long business career he owned a radio station, WAMM-AM along with Reliable Furniture Store. His cousin Julius Binder owned Binders' Big and Tall Mens Store.  He tells of his file growing up on McFarland Avenue in Flint...

Chris Christenson, is a dynamic  lawyer and also a Flint native.  He took an unusual path to the Courthouse and becoming President of the Genesee County Bar Association.  Chris was a union carpenter when he decided to give up nails and planks for law books.  He worked his way through law school as a union carpenter.  Recently named a Super Lawyer by Michigan Lawyers Weekly, Chris has built his car...

This is the second episode of the Boomer Zone.  Arthur Busch and Scott McKinstry, lifelong friends talk about Radio Free Flint and the Boomer Zone.  They talk about the selfie photo booth in the 1960's at Kresge's Department Store in downtown Flint, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Dawn Donuts the Flint's legendary chain of donut shops people grew up on in the 1960s and 1970s. The tal...

General Motors dumped leaded automotive paints, thinners, laquors, and other chemicals into a public park and surrounding areas in Flint, Michigan.  The most obvious evidence of the environmental dirty deed was covered up with bulldozer and a little dirt. Then in 1953, the area known as the Dixieland Subdivision was built on top of and around this lead laced toxic chemical stew.   Testing done in...

Most paperboys finish their route at the neighbor's house.  Arthur Busch's route finished at a gambling joint on the "strip" in front of a GM factory.  He recounts a story of life in gritty Flint, Michigan.  In his story, he of delivers the Flint Journal to a bar on his paper route and stumbles onto a robbery. Arthur then faced down the burglar who had sawed off shotgun in hand...

Arthur Busch narrates a story about the unsolved murder of a Flint drug store owner in 1954.  It was the former prosecutor's welcome to Flint as his mom was pregnant for him at the time she witnessed the armed robbery and murder.  The murder took place in a 1950's style drug store complete with a soda fountain. He recounts his mother's trauma and what unfolded afterwards.  Flint, Mi...

Lawyers dream about appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Only a very small number of lawyers ever get the chance.  Arthur Busch argued the first Flint criminal case ever to come before the United States Supreme Court, in March 2003.  Arthur Busch shares his diary by telling the story of his historic experience.. His story includes what growing up in Flint taught him about winning and lawyerin...

The second diary essay by Arthur Busch. Flint, Michigan is a rust-belt factory town. The town was transformed in the 1950's by a great migration of eager southerners seeking work in GM automobile factories. Arthur describes fondly his family and the hillbilly traditions and values they brought to Flint's Dixieland subdivision. He describes his family's southern customs and culture a...

History repeats itself.  Flint Southwestern experienced violence that most remember as a "race riot" in 1970.  The spark that started that racial disturbance was not what people thought at the time.  Arthur Busch gives an audio diary of his memories of that incident.  He discusses the current model of local policing; militarization of the police that has taken the cops from roles as thos...

Arthur Busch discusses the awakening of the northern Hillbillies in the heartland of America.  Intellectuals call parts of the country where globalization has decimated manufacturing jobs the "Rustbelt".   Income inequality has given rise to white American nationalism.  It has found a home in places like Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan with profound social and political implications.   To b...

Hop in for a ride with local history columnist Gary Flinn to the halcyon days of flint.  Revisit the contributions of oft-overlooked David Buick, the inventive and invaluable Flint auto pioneer who lacked the business savvy to become an auto legend.   Travel back to the original Kewpee Burger and wash it down with an old Vernor’s ginger ale before catching a show at Capitol Theatre.   In the shado...

Flint, Michigan has been one of America's most violent cities for decades.  It has been been a national leader in per capita homicides, violent crimes, sexual assaults and arsons. There are many unsolved crimes. Did you ever wonder what the back story was on some of these crimes? What goes into an investigative journalists efforts to dig to get the real story?  Two veteran criminal investigat...

Why are Baby Boomers looking back reveling in memories of the "golden age" of the 1960's and 1970's?  Hot Rod cars, movies, music, girls and all that made up their youth seem to be fair game for conversation these days.  Is it a look away from chaotic times?  Is is a fair assessment that times were really better than now?  This podcast features Arthur Busch and Scott McKinstry...

So is it fake news or just the facts you don't want to hear or accept?  Do headlines belie the news story?  What is the future of local news coverage in Michigan. Our guest is Rhonda Sanders who worked as a journalist for 40 years in the Flint area.  She was a beat reporter, neighborhood reporter and a columnist for the Flint Journal most of her career.  In 1995, she authored a book about Fli...

Flint natives Scott and Michael McKinstry started and published  Old Time Baseball News, a national baseball publication spotlighting retired baseball players.  The paper was published in Flint for 12 years until the business was sold due to illness.  Scott recounts meeting up with numerous major league baseball players including the members of the 1968 Detroit Tigers.  Scott traveled the nation i...

Rev Fr. Phillip Schmitter, currently assigned to Christ the King Catholic Church.  He has spent nearly 50 years of his life serving Flint's catholic community at a variety of churches.  His career has been marked by his passion and devotion to serving the poor. In the finest of Catholic traditions, Father Phil has been a fierce advocate for Flint's minority community on such issues as en...

Dennis Ybarra is a General Motors auto gypsy and a Grand National BMX Race Champion. Dennis,  who has been laid off and transferred an amazing number of times.  During his career he has learned to accept more layoffs than he can count.  He shares his personal story about the anxiety that is caused when the economic winds of change result in his having to accept transfers to far away auto plants ju...