Detroit’s economy and population are likely to grow over the next five years.

But city residents will also face significant disparities in wages.

That’s the finding from a recent forecast of the Motor City’s financial future compiled by researchers at the University of Michigan.

Highly-regarded expert Dan Manaenkov helped examine Detroit’s economic picture.

He says Michigan’s largest city already has one distinct advantage over the rest of the state: a younger workforce. The wider state is losing workers to retirement.

“Michigan has been losing labor force to the tune of 3% year over year,” says Manaenkov. 

In the long term, Manaenkov is less optimistic about Detroit’s economy. “Detroit is not an isolated economy… in the longer run, it is a lot more sensitive to how the over all Michigan is doing.” He also says that Detroiter’s on average make less money, leading to continuing wage disparity.

At the end of 2018 Russia arrested Michigan native Paul Whelan on bogus espionage charges.

He was convicted of spying and sent to a Russian labor camp.

Moscow released Whelan in a massive prisoner exchange two years ago. But Russia had taken more than just time from him. His job and home were gone.

Now Congress is considering a plan to help cover those losses for Whelan and other U.S. citizens held by rogue nations.

He says the Paul Whelan Hostage Compensation and Reintegration Act would fill a badly-needed financial void.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Paul Whelan: When I returned home in August of 2024, I found that there wasn’t really much support for former hostages. We were well taken care of at the Brooke Army Medical Center, then we were well taken care of by the joint personnel recovery activity at Fort Sam Houston. But after that you were really just on your own. States like Michigan don’t offer unemployment insurance for former hostages, for example. There are no national organizations that take care of hostages. There is Hostage International, which is an international organization, but their reach is limited, especially in the United States. So we started looking for ways to assist former hostages with reintegration.

What we found is that hostages held in countries that sponsor terrorism are afforded compensation. But hostages held in countries that are not considered state sponsors of terrorism, such as Russia and China, are not compensated. And we can argue back and forth whether Russia supports terrorism or not. But the way things work, we would have to go to one of the world courts and try to sue Russia. And then Russia would say, “Well, we have sovereign immunity, so you can’t sue us.” There’s no way to gain compensation from a country like Russia.

So what we did is looked into using seized assets, frozen bank accounts and things like that from Russia, China, Syria, Iran, countries that are notorious for holding hostages. And then using those funds to compensate hostages for the income, retirement, and things like that they’ve lost while they were being held.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: There has been a law on the books Congress had passed that’s supposed to help returning hostages. But, as we have talked about in the past, they had never funded that act. Would what you are talking about now be something in addition to that or would this actually fund that act?

PW: This would be in addition to that act. The existing act specifically mentions medical care, psychological care, things like that. And we’ve actually made some progress with Congress in providing those benefits through the State Department for those in need.

What we’re talking about now is monetary compensation paid to hostages based on the number of days that they’re held. That money would come out of frozen assets and frozen accounts of the rogue nations holding American citizens.

QK: Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens is pushing this. As far as you know, is it a bipartisan effort or is it coming mainly from the Democrats?

PW: No, this is an American issue. And Haley Stevens has been the main supporter of this idea. She has always been a big supporter of me and hostages in general. But we have broad support, Democrat and Republican, because this touches American citizens in every state. It doesn’t discriminate. And unfortunately one never knows during leisure travel or business travel when a foreign government might just get you in their sights and grab you. And then you’re held at their mercy.

QK: I know you have kept a keen eye on situations regarding current hostages and others that have been taken by Russia or other countries. There are a number of people from the U.S. who are still being held by Russia, some designated as “wrongfully detained,” as you had been.

PW: You’re absolutely right. Stephen Hubbard, a Michigan resident, I might add, was living in the Ukrainian area that Russia invaded. And when Russia invaded, they said, here’s an American. Even though he’s about 74-years-old, they took him into custody and said that he was working as a mercenary for the Ukrainian army. He has been designated as wrongfully detained and the State Department is actively trying to get him home. But there’s Andre Khachatoorian, there’s David Barnes, there’s Chuck Zimmerman. These are guys who, for one reason or another, ended up in Russia and none of those three did anything untoward. And because they had an American passport the Russians said, “This is an interesting person. Let’s grab them. Maybe we can make use of them.”

QK: Let me play Devil’s advocate for just a second. It’s a tough economy for a lot of people right now. Many people would love to get some extra finances sent to them. Here you have this bill where it would compensate you or others, depending on the time you’ve been out, for the time that was taken. What would you say to somebody who is struggling to pay their rent or something right now and tell them why you would deserve to be compensated for that time when they are not getting compensated for what they’re doing?

PW: That’s a good point. So let me be clear. The money is not coming from United States’ taxpayers. The money comes from foreign frozen bank accounts, from, say, Venezuela, from Russia, from Iran, from those rogue nations. And that money will be used to compensate hostages. Hostages lose freedom. I was held for 2,043 days. That means 2,043 days I wasn’t earning an income. I wasn’t saving for retirement. And when I came home, I found that my home was gone, my cars were gone, everything was gone. And I had to rebuild my life.

People that have car accidents have insurance and the insurance company pays them. People that break a leg, they have insurance, the insurance company takes care of their medical bills. Hostages have absolutely no social safety net at all. And what we’re hoping is that this compensation bill will provide that social safety net so when hostages come home they can rebuild their lives.

And it’s a process. Reintegration takes time. Maybe the first year they can’t work at all. Maybe the second year they’re getting back into the workforce. But most of us, especially those who are older, will never realize the same income level, the same salaries, the same benefits or retirement plans that we lost when we were taken hostage.

QK: You were held for more than five years. You’ve been back for a couple of years. How are you doing now?

PW: Actually, I’m doing pretty well. I have a lot of support from my family, my parents in Michigan, friends all over the country, actually all over the world. And then I do have family scattered around the world who are quite supportive also. People are interested in helping. They don’t always know how to help because being a hostage is kind of unique. But people are willing to go out of their way and do what they can to to support me as a former hostage and friend and family member.

I am very active with Congress. I’m very active with a few organizations that advocate for hostages. And I find that the advocacy is quite helpful for me. Being able to speak to organizations, civic groups and things like that really helps me to get the point across that if you’re traveling abroad, you have to be very careful. And if you’re in a country like Russia, you need to come home.

If you know of situations where people are traveling without the security they should have, they should take precautions like using the STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) where they can provide their itinerary and information to the U.S. State Department before they travel. So if something happens in that country or to them, the State Department knows who to contact back home. And that will greatly enhance the U.S. government’s ability to take care of them. I had registered with STEP when I went to Russia and that allowed the U.S. ambassador and State Department personnel in Moscow to contact my family very quickly. It is a unique situation. You know, I’m fortunate. I hope that everyone else that’s coming home has that same support network, but I fear that they don’t.

QK: You had said in the past that what you had to go through being held for all that time left scars, emotional scars, on you. Flashbacks to things like staying in a hotel room and wondering whether somebody might try to come and get you like the Russians had done. Has that all somewhat subsided now?

PW: Yes, it has. Part of the reason is that I live in the United States, land of the free, home of the brave, and I don’t have to worry about that sort of thing. I can go to a hotel and stay the night without having to worry about people kicking in my door. I don’t have to worry about the corruption that takes place in countries like Russia. From that standpoint, I’m doing quite well.

When I talk to civic groups or Congress about my experiences, it does bring back those memories of what we went through. And when Trevor Reed and I have conversations or I’m talking to other hostages that were held in Venezuela, Iran, Syria, or other countries. The issues that we dealt with during captivity and the issues we’ve dealt with since coming home do come up. You have to deal with them just like anything else. You have to kind of face it head on and overcome it. It’s difficult at times, but it’s a necessary compromise.

Canada is imposing huge tariffs on a variety of U.S. products, as a response to President Trump’s recent series of 50 % tariffs on certain Canadian goods.

And a coalition of business groups says Michigan is feeling the brunt of the trade war.

The Michigan Smart Trade Alliance champions good trade relations with other countries, especially Canada.

The group’s Mark Fisk says, in just one example, some parents got a good taste recently of what the current tariffs meant for returning students.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Mark Fisk: For many Michigan families, this time of year means back to school shopping. And, unfortunately, due to the increased tariffs, it also means higher costs. Many basic school supplies, from pencils and crayons to binders and folders, are much more expensive due to the tariffs.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: How high of a price increase are we talking?

MF: We’ve seen double digit increases for many, many items. Rubber erasers are up, pencils and crayons are up, backpacks are up, on and on across the board. Scissors, binders, they’re all up. And that is in line with general cost increases due to the tariffs. No state has been hit harder than Michigan because of our current trade policies. That has meant really bad news for families, retailers, farmers and small businesses.

QK: How are you tying the increased tariffs to this increased price in school supplies?

MF: We simply did an analysis of the before and after. The picture that emerges is very, very clear. The tariffs are having a huge increase on not just school supplies but clothing, soccer balls and all kinds of ordinary items that families need as they go back to school. And that is bad news for families, bad news for retailers, and bad news for businesses.

QK: And the data that you’re gathering this from, if I understand you correctly, says that tariffs have increased by “X” percent and these prices have increased as well. So you’re that’s how you’re tying those together?

MF: That is exactly right. And, again, no state’s been hit harder than Michigan by the current trade policy. It’s hurt our tourism industry, Quinn. We’ve had reduced foot traffic because of some of the trade wars and the tensions between ourselves and Canada. And that tourism industry fuels mom and pop businesses like restaurants, hotels, motels, gas stations. The current trade policy has been a disaster for Michigan families.

QK: So, in your group’s view then, what would you see as the remedy for this?

MF: We need Congress to act. We need Congress to take the reins and begin enacting smart, consistent trade policies. That means trade policies that lower costs instead of raise costs, trade policies that create jobs instead of kill jobs. And we need a trade policy that preserves our relationship with Canada. Canada’s a top export partner for the nation and for Michigan. We have a long-standing partnership with Canada and it works better for businesses, for everyone, if we are working together in partnership on trade rather than in a trade war with tensions and higher costs.

QK: Your alliance has been known for trying to protect Michigan’s trade relationship with Canada. It’s no secret things are a bit tense on that front right now, since the president launched new tariffs recently, basically on his own. You mentioned Congress reining them in, but do you see anything truly on a congressional or any other level that can actually affect what tariffs the President wants to impose or doesn’t want to?

MF: We have traveled all over the state with the Smart Trade Alliance. And I think it begins with getting out there and listening to the impact that the tariffs are having on businesses, on agriculture, hotels and restaurants, on the retailers. And then we have to look at working together in a bipartisan fashion to enact trade policies that give our economy a shot in the arm. Instead of the current approach, the erratic approach, which is shooting ourselves in the foot.

Legendary Motown singer Martha Reeves has seen her share of battles. That includes disagreements with her original back-up singers, the Vandellas, a stint on the Detroit City Council and recent criticism of her rendition of the national anthem.

Yet at age 85, Reeves says she still has fight left in her. And music.

She’s showcasing both on her first new record in two decades, called “Searching.”

Reeves says from her first days in Motown’s Artists and Repertoire, or “A&R” department, she’s tried to deliver tunes that pack a message.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Martha Reeves: I did a “Heat Wave,” I’ve “Danced in the Street,” I’ve had “Nowhere to Run,” I’ve been in “Quicksand.” What else do I need to do?

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Then why are you doing another record?

MR: I record ’cause I can. My manager, Chris Rowe, kinda helped me get back on the good foot, I’ll put it that way. To do a recording that everybody can learn to love, like Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You is to Love You” (The first single released from “Searching.) We chose that on purpose because I have a personal history with Stevie Wonder.

I was kind of appointed his day care nurse at Motown. When he first came to the studio, he was brought to the A&R department with no introduction or anything. He just was there. I looked and saw a young man, about 8 years old. I said, “Hi, how you doing? What’s your name?” He said, “Stevie. What’s yours?” I said, “Martha.” He said, “You sound like a nice person. Let me see what you look like.” And he fingered my face, precious fingers all over my face.

We got to know each other and fell in love at that moment. He took the liberty of playing rhythms on the typewriter, the telephone. I think he played “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” on the telephone.

We had a good time until they came and knocked on the door and said, “Stevie, you’re needed in Studio A.” It was just across the  hall. So I followed him. We had gotten acquainted and I felt like I was a part of him and he was a part of me, being A&R director.

He went to every instrument in that room and played it. Played a bit of drums, a bit of keyboard, piano, xylophone, harmonica, congas, bongas. He played everything. And (Motown founder) Berry Gordy was standing on the side watching carefully, observing this new talent that Ronnie White of the Miracles had brought to him from church. And after hearing him play all those instruments Berry said, “This kid is a wonder.” There’s his name. Went from Stevland Judkins to Stevie Wonder.

And to sing Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You is to Love You,” a duet between him and his wife, Syreeta, it’s gonna hold a special place in my heart. And I’m sure that Stevie will appreciate it too. To know you is to love you. He’s talking about, maybe, his loved one. I’m talking about God. To know God is to love Him.

QK: It always sounds like you had to really fight your way onto the Motown label, from being a receptionist to them actually recognizing you as an artist?

MR: I was an artist first. I was invited to come to the A&R department for an audition. But when I got there, there was a job. I was asked to answer the phone, by the same guy that approached me and asked me to come to Hitsville, USA (Motown’s original headquarters.) He’d be right back. I didn’t know him that well. But he had given me a card saying, “You have talent. Come to Hitsville.” I was discovered.

On that card was the name Barrett Strong, who sang “Money (That’s What I Want,) one of the first songs my dad liked from Motown. He worked for the city water department, so he was very aware of what was going on in the city. And “Money” was one of his favorite songs. Here I am in the office and I’m talking to the people who produced the song that my dad had taken favor to. And my brother, Benny Reeves, had sang at Hitsville with the Contours. So I was coerced or invited or drawn to or whatever you want to call it on purpose at Motown records. I was asked to come back the next day, the next day, the next day, and it became a habit. Every day, nine o’clock, I’d be at Hitsville, USA. Official secretary, but not really. An artist waiting on my turn. I was invited and I stayed.

QK: There’s so many experiences everybody I’ve ever talked to that’s been connected to Motown has had. And so many classics that you recorded, “Dancing in the Street,” all the rest of them. This is a horrid question journalists often ask, but when you look back at that, are there any moments or songs that have always stood out to you from that time?

MR: Every one. Mom showed me something very young in my life while singing gospel songs in my grandfather’s church. Never sing a song unless you can feel it in your spirit, in your soul. If it can mean something to you, then it’ll be real. If it don’t mean anything to you, it’s just an act of recording. But every song that I sing means something to me, I have it in my heart. Know what I’m talking about, and then give it my worship, give it my praise. And that works for me.

QK: The same way now with this new one, “Searching?”

MR: Yeah. I’m on another level now. I can imitate all my teachers. My album has been classified as jazz but it’s gospel. It’s rock, but it’s pop. It’s rap, but it’s disco. It’s rock and roll, but it’s the blues. We’ve got everything. Somehow we’ve mixed together an album that’s featuring every genre of music, every mode, every mood. So I’m having a good time.

QK: We were talking about Motown. One of the songs on this album is an old Motown song, “I Got it Bad,” that you had cut back in the 1960’s but never released.

MR: It was put on a compilation album that Motown released long after it was recorded, three discs of unreleased product. That shows you have stocked up hit after hit after hit. Some of them have been released, some of them are yet to be. But I worked really hard in the A&R department and I recorded more songs than other artists at Hitsville, USA.

QK: And the one that’s on “Searching,” did you guys remake it completely or did you just take the old recording and kind of gussy it up a bit?

MR: Everything is brand new with brand new musicians, the best to be had from all over the world. I got a chance to be a co-writer on some of the songs. I’ve written on every album I ever recorded. But I’ve never gotten credit. Somehow now I feel I’ve arrived as an artist. I was asked my opinion and was allowed the chance to write on some of the material was already presented to me.

QK: It sounds like there is very much a “praise God” theme, vibe, throughout the entire record.

MR: Yes. I’m dedicated. I’ve got no choice for the rest of my life. I’m reborn. I’m saved by grace. I’m a messenger. I know my job.

One of the questions to me has been, “What made me go back in the studio?” I’ve never been out. I’ve been recording all these years. Most artists are recording all their lives. Everything doesn’t make it to the public or get released. But artists have to stay active, they have to stay in the mode of. I have to sing every day.

QK: People will speak about the civil rights movement and they’ll bring up “Dancing in the Street” and tie it sometimes to the riot, the rebellion in Detroit in 1967. They’ll say some of them thought it was a call to riot, like an anthem of sorts. Was there even any truth to that?

MR: There’s no truth whatsoever. The sweet Marvin Gaye wrote the song. I happened to be standing in the studio at this window that you could see him sing. And I was able to roam around the studio because I worked in the A&R department. So I stood there and watched Marvin, which was one of my favorite pastimes. He was so fine, I gotta be real with you. I was watching him sing “Dancing in the Street” and he did a wonderful job. He saw me in the window and beckoned to me, “Come here, Martha, come here.”

When I went in he said, “I want you to sing this song for me.” And in my mind I thought, I don’t wanna be in the street. I wanna be in the studio, I wanna be in the house, I wanna be in the theater, I wanna be at the casino, I wanna be somewhere, I don’t wanna be in the street.

I didn’t know it was gonna be the hit that it was. It took me the first take to realize that the tape machine wasn’t turned on. They didn’t think I was ready to record it. The engineer, Lawrence Horn, said, “Hey man, the machine wasn’t on.” So I wanted to be angry about it, but I expressed it in my delivery of “Dancing in the Street,” if anybody listens to it and hears how excited I was.

Marvin recorded it to keep people from fighting and breaking into people’s businesses and throwing bricks and acting the fool. He thought if everybody started dancing to that beautiful music that he wrote, it would quench that riot and everything would be wonderful. Those were our intentions. However wrong they were taken is another thing altogether.

QK: You were actually onstage at the Fox Theater when the riot started happening and you had to kind of mellow the crowd out as things were going on?

MR: Yeah, they sent me out there. Said, “Come here Martha.” I thought something was wrong, my dress had unzipped or my shoes weren’t tied or something. And they said, “You gotta go on stage and tell everybody that the riot is on, there are tanks in the street, it’s an uproar. You gotta get these kids out of your dressing room and out of this theater and get to their home. There’s a curfew. There’s a siren going on. Can you hear it? Go to the stage and tell everybody they’ve got to leave quietly. Don’t run, ’cause if you panic the audience, somebody might get stampeded.” He said all this to me and pushed me out on stage.

And I went to the mic and somehow God gave me the ad lib to say, “Everybody, there’s been a riot, you’ve got to go home. Leave quietly.” It worked. Everybody just calmly walked out, with be barely any sound whatsoever. It was scary. Nobody hollered out, “What do you mean?” None of that. Everybody just got up and walked out. Half of them ran, of course, because you could hear the sirens. It was a horrible time.

QK: When people get to a point where they’ve really done a lot in their career and have all this vast experience, some will ask what would be your advice for the next generation, to any young artists coming up? Especially nowadays compared to Hitsville, when everything is digital, it’s streaming, people can share files, and is an artist even gonna earn anything from their work? And you don’t have the big A&R departments spending zillions to develop you as an act. What advice would you have for people coming up in this age?

MR: I don’t know. Nobody advised me. I just went into it head first and took my chances and took what fate had for me. I’ve always tried to be righteous, I’ve always tried to be honest, and always tried to put my best foot forward. I’ve had lessons and I used them. I study other singers, singers that went before me. I imitate them in some of my moves when I sing.

On this new album, I was allowed to do whatever I felt like doing, whatever I heard in the lyrics, however I wanted to express them. I haven’t had that kind of freedom in my past recordings. I’ve almost been dictated to by the person that actually wrote the song. This time I was allowed to not only add to the lyrics of the songs already written, but to bring songs that I’ve written solely on my own. It makes me feel like not only an artist but a writer too, and a producer as well. I’d like to produce some other talent, younger talent, teach them what I’ve learned.

Everything that I’ve ever done, somebody came and got me and made me do it. Or didn’t make me, but asked me if I could. And I was willing and able. Everything in show business.

My first song was “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well” with my two older brothers at my grandfather’s church. I was three years old, but we won that candy! I still remember the words. So, since the age of three I’ve known that I got a message and God will use me. Because I can. He can’t use everybody, because everybody’s not willing. I’m a willing spirit.

Michigan officials and advocates often say the state needs to give college graduates a reason to stay here and not look for economic opportunities elsewhere.

But a new report finds Michigan is actually doing a better job of keeping its homegrown students at home than many suggest.

The study, “Talent in Motion,” comes from the non-profit Strada Education Foundation.

The group’s research director at its Institute for the Future of Work is Dr. Peter Bahr. He says college-educated workers are still a key part of creating a thriving workplace.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Peter Bahr: We know that the highly educated populations help create and sustain economic growth. And as a result of that, many states, including Michigan, have set very ambitious goals to expand their college-educated workforces. But states are making investments to achieve those goals somewhat blind, without the critical information about where their college-educated workers actually come from. We conducted this study to help solve that problem. And we created the most complete portrait to date of the sources of states’ college-educated workers.

One of the most surprising findings was that, despite much attention to recruiting college-educated workers from other areas, a state’s main source of college-educated talent is their own high schools. Across the nation about 2/3 of college-educated workers live in the state where they graduated from high school. And 55 % graduated from both high school and college in the state where they now work. Michigan, however, was remarkable because it had 72%, the highest share of college-educated workers who had graduated from both high school and college in the same state.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You’d worked as a professor for the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. With that background, what did you think when you saw this data?

PB: I was surprised by how prominent Michigan was in that regard, what a strong share it had. I had heard for many years about the retention rate issue. And to see that Michigan is actually ahead of the average in terms of the retention of college graduates, I thought it was a very encouraging finding for a state that I think is just a wonderful place. On the other hand, many states are struggling with the contraction in their workforce driven by other factors, including retirements from the Baby Boom generation. That’s a big one with Michigan.

QK: You hear so much from government officials and others about the “brain drain” and the state losing homegrown talent. What are you finding in terms of how universities and state governments, for that matter, are operating to keep and retain talent?

PB: You’re definitely pointing to an important issue. We didn’t tackle that specifically in this report, but what we did find was related. College-educated workers that graduated from public colleges and universities are much more likely to be in that homegrown segment. And that’s especially true of the broad access publics like the regional four-year universities. I’m thinking Eastern Michigan, Western, Central. The share of their graduates that are homegrown is exceptionally high. We can contrast that with private institutions, where there’s a much smaller share of graduates who are homegrown. The public institutions, particularly non-selective or less selective, broad access, regional institutions are very much the backbone of the talent production pipeline.

In addition, colleges and universities can be part of the solution too. They need to make sure that their programs are connected to real opportunities in the workforce. And then reinforce those bridges to quality jobs by engaging their local employers in work-based learning opportunities for their students.

QK: And that’s not happening that much currently?

PB: I think everybody has got this on their mind. But it isn’t something that’s necessarily at the top of the priority list. But it is a key element of ensuring that graduates can get quality jobs.