The Milford Independent Cinema is ceasing operations, joining a host of other area movie theaters that have run their final credits in recent years.
The one-screen theater, founded in 1972, will close its doors Jan. 31, operators announced in an Instagram post on Sunday.
“This difficult decision follows extensive efforts to sustain operations amid significant and ongoing changes within the film exhibition industry,” the statement said. “Shifts toward streaming platforms, evolving film distribution models, rising operational costs, and increasing box office fees required to show first-run films have made it increasingly difficult for independent theaters to remain viable.”
The theater’s closing follows the shuttering of other Metro Detroit movie theaters and multiplexes, including the AMC Star Southfield, AMC Fairlane 21, Main Art Theatre, Maple Theater and Cinema Detroit, all of which have closed their doors since 2020. The Regal Cinemas UA Commerce Township closed in September after more than 27 years in business.
The Milford theater requires $70,000 in annual support to cover operating costs, the statement said.
“This decision was not made lightly and is not due to a lack of effort or community support,” the Cinema’s Board of Directors said in a statement. “The Milford community showd up for us time and time again — with attendance, fundraising, and unwavering commitment. We truly tried to evolve with the industry and meet the needs of our community. Unfortunately, we simply did not have enough time or the level of corporate and major donor support required to get where we needed to be.”
Details of the theater’s closing events will be announced in the coming days.
The Milford, which was run by the Henn family from 1972 to 2020 and reopened with new ownership in 2021 after shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic, is currently showing “Song Sung Blue,” starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as a Midwestern couple who play in a Neil Diamond tribute band.
The theater had mapped out showings for its Film Appreciation Night for the rest of 2026, including free showings of “Fargo” (Jan. 26), “All the President’s Men,” “Trainspotting,” “The Searchers” and more.
The Milford Independent Cinema, founded in 1972, will close at the end of January.
As part of its deportation efforts, the Trump administration has ordered states to hand over personal data from voter rolls, driver’s license records and programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.
At the same time, the administration is trying to consolidate the bits of personal data held across federal agencies, creating a single trove of information on people who live in the United States.
Many left-leaning states and cities are trying to protect their residents’ personal information amid the immigration crackdown. But a growing number of conservative lawmakers also want to curb the use of surveillance technologies, such as automated license plate readers, that can be used to identify and track people.
Conservative-led states such as Arkansas, Idaho and Montana enacted laws last year designed to protect the personal data collected through license plate readers and other means. They joined at least five left-leaning states — Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Washington — that specifically blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing their driver’s license records.
The Trump administration’s goal is to create a “surveillance dragnet across the country,” said William Owen, communications director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that advocates for stronger privacy laws.
“We’re entering an increasingly dystopian era of high-tech surveillance,” Owen said. Intelligence sharing between various levels of government, he said, has “allowed ICE to sidestep sanctuary laws and co-opt local police databases and surveillance tools, including license plate readers, facial recognition and other technologies.”
A new Montana law bars government entities from accessing electronic communications and related material without a warrant. Republican state Sen. Daniel Emrich, the law’s author, said “the most important thing that our entire justice system is based on is the principle against unlawful search and seizure” — the right enshrined in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s tough to find individuals who are constitutionally grounded and understand the necessity of keeping the Fourth Amendment rights intact at all times for all reasons — with minimal or zero exceptions,” Emrich said in an interview.
ICE did not respond to Stateline’s requests for comment.
Automated license plate readers
Recently, cities and states have grown particularly concerned over the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which are high-speed camera and computer systems that capture license plate information on vehicles that drive by. These readers sit on top of police cars and streetlights or can be hidden within construction barrels and utility poles.
Some cameras collect data that gets stored in databases for years, raising concerns among privacy advocates. One report from the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive think tank at New York University, found the data can be susceptible to hacking. Different agencies have varying policies on how long they keep the data, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a law enforcement advocacy group.
Supporters of the technology, including many in law enforcement, say the technology is a powerful tool for tracking down criminal suspects.
Flock Safety says it has cameras in more than 5,000 communities and is connected to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies across 49 states. The company claims its cameras conduct more than 20 billion license plate reads a month. It collects the data and gives it to police departments, which use the information to locate people.
Holly Beilin, a spokesperson for Flock Safety, told Stateline that while there are local police agencies that may be working with ICE, the company does not have a contractual relationship with the agency. Beilin also said that many liberal and even sanctuary cities continue to sign contracts with Flock Safety. She noted that the cameras have been used to solve some high-profile crimes, including identifying and leading police to the man who committed the Brown University shooting and killed an MIT professor at the end of last year.
“Agencies and cities are very much able to use this technology in a way that complies with their values. So they do not have to share data out of state,” Beilin said.
Pushback over data’s use
But critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, say that Flock Safety’s cameras are not only “giving even the smallest-town police chief access to an enormously powerful driver-surveillance tool,” but also that the data is being used by ICE. One news outlet, 404 Media, obtained records of these searches and found many were being carried out by local officers on behalf of ICE.
Last spring, the Denver City Council unanimously voted to terminate its contract with Flock Safety, but Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston unilaterally extended the contract in October, arguing that the technology was a useful crime-fighting tool.
The ACLU of Colorado has vehemently opposed the cameras, saying last August that audit logs from the Denver Police Department show more than 1,400 searches had been conducted for ICE since June 2024.
“The conversation has really gotten bigger because of the federal landscape and the focus, not only on immigrants and the functionality of ICE right now, but also on the side of really trying to reduce and or eliminate protections in regards to access to reproductive care and gender affirming care,” Anaya Robinson, public policy director at the ACLU of Colorado.
“When we erode rights and access for a particular community, it’s just a matter of time before that erosion starts to touch other communities.”
Jimmy Monto, a Democratic city councilor in Syracuse, New York, led the charge to eliminate Flock Safety’s contract in his city.
“Syracuse has a very large immigrant population, a very large new American population, refugees that have resettled and been resettled here. So it’s a very sensitive issue,” Monto said, adding that license plate readers allow anyone reviewing the data to determine someone’s immigration status without a warrant.
“When we sign a contract with someone who is collecting data on the citizens who live in a city, we have to be hyper-focused on exactly what they are doing while we’re also giving police departments the tools that they need to also solve homicides, right?” Monto said.
“Certainly, if license plate readers are helpful in that way, I think the scope is right. But we have to make sure that that’s what we’re using it for, and that the companies that we are contracting with are acting in good faith.”
Emrich, the Montana lawmaker, said everyone should be concerned about protecting constitutional privacy rights, regardless of their political views.
“If the government is obtaining data in violation of constitutional rights, they could be violating a whole slew of individuals’ constitutional rights in pursuit of the individuals who may or may not be protected under those same constitutional rights,” he said.
Lansing — Several of Michigan’s public university leaders gathered last week to reveal the results of a study analyzing the positive economic impact their institutions have on the state, generating $45 billion annually.
As public scrutiny of higher education and its mission has grown over the last five years, the speakers, including Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz and Grand Valley State University President Philomena Mantella, explained on Tuesday how Michigan’s public schools are continuing to improve the lives of all Michigan residents.
It’s been 10 years since the last report on the economic impact of Michigan’s universities, said Britany Affolter-Caine, executive director of Research Universities for Michigan, an organization of the four Michigan research universities.
The report, done by the East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group, shows that Michigan’s public universities contributed $45 billion in net new economic activity through operations, student spending and alumni earnings for the state. The report pointed out that this revenue was more than 28 times the amount given in state appropriations for the 15 universities.
“This is economic impact that would not exist in Michigan if these institutions were not here,” said Dan Hurley, CEO of the Michigan Association for State Universities.
However, about 70% of Americans now say higher education is going in the wrong direction, a poll by Pew Research released in October showed, up from 56% in 2020.
Guskiewicz and Mantella agreed that the public perception of higher education is something they’re trying to repair. Graduates coming out of college with jobs in their field, more affordable tuitions so students have less debt and showing the impact of universities in local communities are all ways the institutions can rebuild public trust, the speakers said.
Perception of higher education
Americans were losing confidence in higher education because they believe it’s too expensive, doesn’t provide the skills needed for today’s jobs and is “indoctrinating” students, Guskiewicz said.
The misinformation regarding the value of a degree conflicts with the real data that shows, Guskiewicz said, the social upward mobility and the opportunity that come with a degree, along with the improvements to quality of life in all sectors that touch a university.
“We have to do a better job of telling our story, just like we are today,” Guskiewicz said.
But negative perceptions of higher education held by lawmakers, federally and statewide, can hurt a university’s finances. In the past year, President Donald Trump’s administration has cut millions of dollars from Michigan universities, according to Treasury Department data compiled by the Center for American Progress, a liberal group.
Michigan House Republicans toyed with the idea of cutting $291 million from the University of Michigan’s and MSU’s state appropriations to redistribute among the other state universities. This was rejected by the Democratic-led Senate and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and all universities saw an increase in their state appropriations in the budget approved in October.
File photo from the campus of Central Michigan University. (Stephen Frye / MediaNews Group)
“That was an effort by one caucus in one chamber, which is a pretty distinct minority in the entire public body that ultimately is responsible for passing the state budget,” Hurley said. “All of our universities need to have reinvigorated state investment. … We are thankful for what the Legislature has done in recent years. … But we are conservatively at least 41st out of 50 in this country as it involves per student state support for public universities.”
The worth of a degree
Pew’s poll showed that about 80% of adult respondents said colleges and universities aren’t doing enough to keep tuition affordable, and about half said higher education wasn’t doing enough to prepare students for well-paying jobs.
The speakers acknowledged the longstanding problem of graduates struggling to find employment in their degree’s field, or any meaningful employment at all.
“This is not a new challenge,” Affolter-Caine said. “It happens to maybe be exacerbated in the current cycle.”
However, the report shows that graduates from Michigan universities make double what high school degree holders earn and, on average, about $20,000 more than what graduates from out-of-state public institutions make.
On average, the report said, Michigan university alumni ages 25-24 earn $91,073 yearly.
Mantella said Grand Valley, like other universities, has embraced and strengthened “experience-based learning.” This includes ensuring all students have access to an internship, project-based learning or other professional workforce experience while still in college.
“This is not only an opportunity to accelerate to the workforce,” Mantella said. “It’s so (students) come into the workforce at the appropriate levels, in the appropriate roles. … It also links the individual to a Michigan employer, so there’s a higher probability that they will, in fact, stay in the state and contribute to the state rather than go somewhere else.”
Hurley said about 84% of the top 50 most in-demand jobs over the next few years will require at least a bachelor’s degree.
“(Those jobs) are our state’s economy, our private sector, our non-private sector, our health care sector speaking,” Hurley said. “And so for us to be competitive in the future, we have to continue generating that talent. And of course, it’s the role of the state government to make sure that college remains affordable.”
File. University of Michigan campus. (Stephen Frye / MediaNews Group)
You’re ready to leave the hospital, but you don’t feel able to care for yourself at home yet.
Or, you’ve completed a couple of weeks in rehab. Can you handle your complicated medication regimen, along with shopping and cooking?
Perhaps you fell in the shower, and now your family wants you to arrange help with bathing and getting dressed.
There are facilities that provide such help, of course, but most older people don’t want to go there. They want to stay at home; that’s the problem.
When older people struggle with daily activities because they have grown frail, because their chronic illnesses have mounted, or because they have lost a spouse or companion, most don’t want to move. For decades, surveys have shown that they prefer to remain in their homes for as long as possible.
That means they need home care, either from family and friends, paid caregivers, or both. But paid home care represents an especially strained sector of the long-term care system, which is experiencing an intensifying labor shortage even as an aging population creates surging demand.
“It’s a crisis,” said Madeline Sterling, a primary care doctor at Weill Cornell Medicine and the director of Cornell University’s Initiative on Home Care Work. “It’s not really working for the people involved,” whether they are patients (who can also be younger people with disabilities), family members, or home care workers.
“This is not about what’s going to happen a decade from now,” said Steven Landers, chief executive of the National Alliance for Care at Home, an industry organization. “Do an Indeed.com search in Anytown, USA, for home care aides, and you’ll see so many listings for aides that your eyes will pop out.”
Against this grim backdrop, however, some alternatives show promise in upgrading home care jobs and in improving patient care. And they’re growing.
Some background: Researchers and elder care administrators have warned about this approaching calamity for years. Home care is already among the nation’s fastest-growing occupations, with 3.2 million home health aides and personal care aides on the job in 2024, up from 1.4 million a decade earlier, according to PHI, a research and advocacy group.
But the nation will need about 740,000 additional home care workers over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and recruiting them won’t be easy. Costs to consumers are high — the median hourly rate for a home health aide in 2024 was $34, the annual Genworth/CareScout survey shows, with big geographic variations. But an aide’s median hourly wage was less than $17.
These remain unstable, low-paying jobs. Of the largely female workforce, about a third of whom are immigrants, 40% live in low-income households and most receive some sort of public assistance.
Even if the agencies that employ them offer health insurance and they work enough hours to qualify, many cannot afford their premium payments.
Unsurprisingly, the turnover rate approaches 80% annually, according to a survey by the ICA Group, a nonprofit organization that promotes co-ops.
But not everywhere. One innovation, still small but expanding: home care cooperatives owned by the workers themselves. The first and largest, Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx borough of New York City, began in 1985 and now employs about 1,600 home care aides. The ICA Group now counts 26 such worker-owned home care businesses nationwide.
“These co-ops are getting exceptional results,” said Geoffrey Gusoff, a family medicine doctor and health services researcher at UCLA. “They have half the turnover of traditional agencies, they hold onto clients twice as long, and they’re paying $2 more an hour” to their owner-employees.
When Gusoff and his co-authors interviewed co-op members for a qualitative study in JAMA Network Open, “we were expecting to hear more about compensation,” he said. “But the biggest single response was, ‘I have more say’” over working conditions, patient care, and the administration of the co-op itself.
“Workers say they feel more respected,” Gusoff said.
Through an initiative to provide financing, business coaching, and technical assistance, the ICA Group intends to boost the national total to 50 co-ops within five years and to 100 by 2040.
Another approach gaining ground: registries that allow home care workers and clients who need care to connect directly, often without involving agencies that provide supervision and background checks but also absorb roughly half the fee consumers pay.
One of the largest registries, Carina, serves workers and clients in Oregon and Washington. Established through agreements with the Service Employees International Union, the nation’s largest health care union, it serves 40,000 providers and 25,000 clients. (About 10% of home care workers are unionized, according to PHI’s analysis.)
Carina functions as a free, “digital hiring hall,” said Nidhi Mirani, its chief executive. Except in the Seattle area, it serves only clients who receive care through Medicaid, the largest funder of care at home. State agencies handle the paperwork and oversee background checks.
Hourly rates paid to independent providers found on Carina, which are set by union contracts, are usually lower than what agencies charge, while workers’ wages start at $20, and they receive health insurance, paid time off, and, in some cases, retirement benefits.
Other registries may be operated by states, as in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, or by platforms like Direct Care Careers, available in four states. “People are seeking a fit in who’s coming into their homes,” Mirani said. “And individual providers can choose their clients. It’s a two-way street.”
Finally, recent studies indicate ways that additional training for home care workers can pay off.
“These patients have complex conditions,” Sterling said of the aides. Home care workers, who take blood pressure readings, prepare meals, and help clients stay mobile, can spot troubling symptoms as they emerge.
Her team’s recent clinical trial of home health aides caring for patients with heart failure— “the No. 1 cause of hospitalization among Medicare beneficiaries,” Sterling pointed out — measured the effects of a 90-minute virtual training module about its symptoms and management.
“Leg swelling. Shortness of breath. They’re the first signs that the disease is not being controlled,” Sterling said.
In the study, involving 102 aides working for VNS Health, a large nonprofit agency in New York, the training was shown to enhance their knowledge and confidence in caring for clients with heart failure.
Moreover, when aides were given a mobile health app that allowed them to message their supervisors, they made fewer 911 calls and their patients made fewer emergency room visits.
Small-scale efforts like registries, co-ops, and training programs do not directly address home care’s most central problem: cost.
Medicaid underwrites home care for low-income older adults who have few assets, though the Trump administration’s new budget will slash Medicaid by more than $900 billion over the next decade. The well-off theoretically can pay out-of-pocket.
But “middle-class retired families either spend all their resources and essentially bankrupt themselves to become eligible for Medicaid, or they go without,” Landers said. Options like assisted living and nursing homes are even more expensive.
The United States has never committed to paying for long-term care for the middle class, and it seems unlikely to do so under this administration. Still, savings from innovations like these can reduce costs and might help expand home care through federal or state programs. Several tests and pilots are underway.
Home care workers “have a lot of insight into patients’ conditions,” Sterling said. “Training them and giving them technological tools shows that if we’re trying to keep patients at home, here’s a way to do that with the workforce that’s already there.”
The New Old Age is produced through a partnership withThe New York Times.
Medicaid underwrites home care for low-income older adults who have few assets, though the Trump administration’ s new budget will slash Medicaid by more than $900 billion over the next decade. (QualitDesign/Dreamstime/TNS)
January is a great time of year to pick off decluttering projects, big and small. The new year, new you vibe can transform a task you’ve been putting off into one you cannot wait to cross off your to-do list.
And for many people, that overcrowded, overstuffed feeling the home can take on gives way to a burst of energy to get rid of it all.
Parting with your things, however, can be hard even when you’re excited at the prospect of a fresh start. Picking some easy(ish) decluttering projects is a great way to build momentum.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Take small steps to declutter — your space and your mind. (AP Illustration / Annie Ng)
Here are 20 pretty easy things to consider removing from your home, your car or your life, in service of a less-cluttered 2026:
Holiday decorations
Start with the most obvious: As you take down holiday decor, weed out and throw away broken light sets and ornaments. (Will you need replacements? Order them now when you’re thinking of it, and they’re on sale.) Include holiday cards in the purge; keep the ones you want and throw away the rest.
Unwanted gifts
This one pushes the boundaries of “easy.” It can be hard to get rid of a gift that someone put thought and effort into. But if you got a gift you will truly never use, get rid of it. Return it, regift it, donate it, whatever the right move is, make it now. It won’t be easier in July.
Holiday food
It’s time to break up with that tin of peppermint bark, the container of homemade cranberry sauce or the turkey carcass that hasn’t and will never be turned into stock. Use it up now or throw it out.
If those holiday cookies aren't looking quite so fresh anymore, you may need to pitch 'em. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
Ingredients from 2025 that are languishing
If you bought an ingredient for a dish you made once and will never make again, or that you simply ended up not liking, this is the time to remove it from your life.
That one serving platter that exists to cause you trouble
Not everyone will have one of these, but those of you who do know the exact platter in question: It’s too heavy, too wide or too weirdly shaped, and it never quite works for anything other than getting in your way. Make 2025 the last year you deal with this diva! Donate or sell it if you can, and if it’s an heirloom or similarly significant, pass it along to a family member.
Reusable bags
These things proliferate in the night, and we all have too many of them. If you’ve still got a stack of Trader Joe’s bags with receipts from 2024 in them, a stash of plastic bags spilling out of other plastic bags or shopping bags from stores you haven’t shopped at in years, it’s a sign that you do not actually reuse those reusable bags you keep hanging on to.
Automotive detritus
Does your car need to be cleaned out? Grab a trash bag and spend five minutes purging. It will have an almost-immediate positive effect on your life.
Broken, duplicate or unused cooking utensils and small appliances
This one is especially well-suited to people who plan to make changes to their diets or undertake new cooking or baking endeavors in the new year. Donating or selling utensils and small appliances in January is ideal because for every person who vowed to eat less ice cream in the new year, there’s also a person who is making 2026 their year of ice cream artistry.
Anything you don’t like the smell of
Whether it’s a candle, a body wash, a countertop spray or a perfume, the experience of feeling stuck with a scented item that you hate the smell of is so relatable. Free yourself from those stinking shackles! Admit it was a mistake, and cast it off.
Promotional items and/or freebies you got in 2025
Water bottles, koozies, T-shirts, key chains, notepads — promotional items take many forms, and they’re free, which makes it easy to say, “Eh, it was free. Might as well keep it.” But if you didn’t pay for it and you don’t use it, you owe it nothing and it owes nothing to you. Toss, recycle or donate.
Cleaning products you don’t use
A small collection of cleaning agents are all you need to keep a clean home. Stocking a huge array of cleaning products is counterproductive. They’ll get in your way and make it harder for you to keep your home clean! Unwanted cleaning products, including ones that have been opened, are also super donate-able.
Old slippers
Alas, old slippers are not super donate-able, which can make them oddly hard to part with. But when you replace old slippers with new ones, it is time to say goodbye to your old friends. Beware of the role reassignment trap, here: Are those house slippers you bought in 2019 really going to serve as your new outdoor shoe?
Old dog leashes and collars
Leashes and collars are to our dogs as slippers are to us, which is funny to think about! Hopefully, bringing a bit of humor to the purge party will make it easier to admit that those old leashes and collars will not be used again.
Broken luggage
If you returned from holiday travels with broken luggage, repair it or toss it. Deal with it now; it won’t become less broken in the future.
Hair accessories, products or tools from two hair styles ago
Maybe it’s a bottle of purple conditioner from your short-lived platinum blond era or the round brush you bought when you decided to cut bangs or those clips you bought when you admitted the bangs were a mistake and set about growing them out. If it’s intended for a hairstyle you no longer have, it’s clutter that’s taking up valuable bathroom storage space.
Too many hangers
A common reason people struggle to keep their clothes organized is that their closets are simply too jammed up to be functional. Free up some space by paring down your spare hanger collection.
A common reason people struggle to keep their clothes organized is that their closets are simply too jammed up to be functional. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
Rags, used sponges and old toothbrushes
All the stuff you reassigned as cleaning tools, if you’re not actually using them, then you’re just storing old, gross trash with your cleaning supplies.
Clothes you didn’t mend in 2025
This can feel like a bummer, because it requires admitting that you meant to do something, and didn’t, and that you’re unlikely to do it in the future. Use January’s “fresh start” energy to make a clean break from those unmended clothes, instead of clinging to a past you’ve grown out of.
Broken electronics you didn’t fix in 2025
Ditto broken electronics.
You planned to fix that broken phone, yet it's still lying around, taking up space. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
Empty boxes
Empty boxes — shipping boxes, product boxes, even unused storage containers — take up space and get in the way. Remove them from your orbit! Put the broken electronics and unmended clothes and gross old toothbrushes in them and get rid of all of it at once!
Do you need all those boxes? Keep the dog. Recycle the boxes. (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
You planned to fix those broken items, but did you get around to it in 2025? (Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services)
• Zenning Your Space wellness workshop is 6-7:30 p.m. Jan. 23, at Wint Nature Center, 9501 Sashabaw Road, Independence Twp. Craft a kokedama (a Japanese moss ball plant) and discover ways to weave natural elements into your environment for relaxation, balance and better air quality, suited for ages 8+, $10/person, preregistration is required; call 248-858-0916, or visit www.oakgov.com/community/oakland-county-parks.
• The Meadow Brook Garden Club meeting is Jan. 23, at Meadow Brook Hall, 350 Estate Drive, Rochester. Coffee and refreshments will be served at 9:15 a.m., program at 10 a.m. featuring guest speaker, Marilyn Trent, founder of Rochester Pollinators, “Petals, Pollinators & Pocket Forests”. Reservations are not required, $5 non-member fee, enter through the De Carlo Visitor Center. For information, call 248-364-6210 or email MBGC@Oakland.edu.
• Oakland County Farmers Market offers free cooking demonstrations, 10-11 a.m. Jan. 24, Feb. 7, Feb. 21, March 7 and March 21, held in cooperation with edibleWOW, at Oakland County Farmers Market, 2350 Pontiac Lake Road in Waterford Twp. Guests can shop for ingredients during market hours, 7 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Oakland County Farmers Market. Copies of the recipes will be available at the market and online at www.oakgov.com/community/oakland-county-parks/parks-trails/farmers-market, following the demonstrations.
• Annual Birmingham Youth Assistance Kids’ Dog Show 2026 is Feb. 1, at Berkshire Middle School Gym, 21707 W 14 Mile Road, Beverly Hills, children ages 4-14, can compete with their dogs. Tickets are $25+ per dog, dogs must be immunized and on a leash. For online purchases, use a computer, not mobile at www.birminghamyouthassistance.org. Registration closes on Jan. 30. To pay by check, print a form from the website.
• Oakland County is accepting applications for the Oakland Together 40 Under 40 Class of 2026, through 5 p.m. Feb. 2. The annual program recognizes 40 leaders younger than 40 who live or work in Oakland County – and who are driving positive change in their communities. Applicants must self-nominate, and be at least 18 years old, born after Dec. 31, 1985. For more information or to apply, visit www.oakgov.com/40under40. For questions, email 40under40@oakgov.com or call 248-858-5400.
Education
• The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Detroit Chapter is offering $2,500 scholarships to Michigan students and apprentices pursuing careers in construction and skilled trades. NAWIC Detroit is hosting a free, in-person scholarship workshop on Jan. 24, at Detroit’s Northwest Activities Center, RSVP at https://forms.gle/Dknj4uwvHixp7Wb18. Scholarship applications are due by Feb. 28, https://nawic.org/nfsf-scholarships.
Expos
• The Troy Public Library will host a Preschool Expo, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Jan. 22, at the Troy Community Center and is seeking organizations to participate. The free event is an opportunity for organizations that provide services to children ages birth to 5 years old in the Troy area, troypl.org for more information or call 248.524.3538.
• The HBA and the Construction Association of Michigan (CAM) to present the Great Lakes Design and Construction EXPO 2026 for residential and commercial designers, contractors, suppliers and service providers, Feb. 3, at the Vibe Credit Union Showplace (formerly Suburban Collection Showplace), 46100 Grand River Ave. in Novi. For registration and ticket information, visit https://miconstructionexpo.com.
• Detroit Auto Show is Jan. 14-25, Huntington Place, Detroit, https://detroitautoshow.com, ticket prices vary.
• The Novi Home Show is Jan. 16-18, Vibe Credit Union Showplace, formerly Suburban Collection Showplace, 46100 Grand River Ave., Novi, www.vibeshowplace.com, general admission is $12, ($5 for ages 6-14) parking is $10.
• Winter White Wonderland Party is at 7 p.m. Jan. 23, 135 S Broadway, Lake Orion, hors d'oeuvres, entertainment from DJ Junbugg and dancing, https://www.facebook.com/winesociallakeorion, https://wine-social.com, $49.87+.
• BRRmingham Blast is 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, downtown Birmingham, along South Old Woodward Avenue from Maple Road to Brown Street, featuring a 300-foot zip line, magic shows, marshmallow roasting, inflatable axe throwing, food trucks and warming tent. Free parking in the 333 Pierce Street and the 222 Peabody Street municipal garages, downtownbirmingham.com/park. Zip line participants must weigh at least 40 lbs. and a maximum of 225 lbs. and be at least 6 years of age. The line will close early to accommodate all riders before the end of the event, downtownbirmingham.com.
• Winter Carnival is noon-4 p.m. Jan. 24, Bear Creek Nature Park, 740 W. Snell Road, Oakland Twp., ice skating, sled dogs, snow games, archery shoot, food trucks, weather permitting, https://oaklandtwpmi.gov/winter-carnival, free parking and shuttle service at Rochester Christian Church, 4435 Rochester Road, Oakland Twp.
• Ice Age Giants is 2-3:30 p.m. Jan. 24, at Red Oaks County Park Nature Center, 30300 Hales St., Madison Heights, see and touch fossils from Michigan’s frozen past, explore how DNA studies and replication research may reveal some ice-age genes, program is suitable for ages 8+, $5/person. Register at www.oakgov.com/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/8846/763, or call 248-858-0100.
• Winterfest 2026 is 1-4 p.m. Jan. 25, Oak Park Community Center, 14300 Oak Park Blvd., Oak Park, free carriage rides, live music, Mini Scottish Cows, reindeer, ice carver, crafts, chili, hot chocolate, www.oakparkmi.gov, free admission.
Health/safety activities
• The American Red Cross is in need of blood donations. Those who give now through Jan. 25 will be automatically entered to win a trip for two to Super Bowl LX in February in Santa Clara, California. Donors with types O, A negative and B negative blood are especially needed. To make an appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org/SuperBowl, or use the Red Cross Blood Donor app or call 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767).
• The Dorothy and Peter Brown Jewish Community Adult Day Program, which offers care for metro Detroiters living with dementia, will host a free virtual program on the latest treatments available for treating Alzheimer’s Disease. The live webinar is at 2 p.m. Jan. 29. The program is suitable for caregivers and advocates of people living with dementia. Register for the program by Jan. 27, by email to Joanna Dorfman at jdorfman@jslmi.org or call 248.661.6390 ext. 1, www.brownadultday.org.
• National Radon Action Month is January. Radon test kits for homes are available through the month at no cost to Oakland County residents at Health Division offices: North Oakland Health Center, 1200 N. Telegraph, Building 34E, Pontiac or South Oakland Health Center, 27725 Greenfield Road, Southfield. Hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. (closed, Jan. 19). Contact the office ahead of time if you want more than five test kits, 800-848-5533, epa.gov/radon, oakgov.com/health.
Library activities
• Winter Wonder Library is 6-8 p.m. Jan. 23, Rochester Hills Public Library, 500 Olde Towne Rd., Rochester, celebrity storytime readers, cookies and cocoa, kids and adult crafts, a Yeti scavenger hunt, games, and a brightly lit library garden. The library closes early at 5 p.m. to prepare and reopens its doors at 6 p.m. for the event. No registration is required, rhpl.org/news.
Museums
• Holocaust Remembrance Day: 7 p.m. Jan. 18, with The Zekelman Holocaust Center, at The Hawk Black Box Theatre, 29995 W. Twelve Mile Road, Farmington Hills, TheHawkTheatre.com, $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Parks/Outdoor activities
Snow fort making and campfire is 1-2:30 p.m. Jan. 19, at Bloomer Park, 345 John R Road, Rochester Hills, at the Hilltop Shelter, build a fort and deconstruct afterward with talk about “leaving no trace,” includes hot chocolate and a campfire, recommended for ages 7+. Tickets are $7 per person for all ages, children under 12 must be accompanied by a paid adult, register online at www.eventbrite.com/e/snow-fort-and-campfire-tickets-1976877787679?aff=ebdsoporgprofile.
• City of Auburn Hills Winter Solstice Lantern Walk is 6-9 p.m. Jan. 23, (previously scheduled for Dec. 19) at Hawk Woods Park and Campground, 3799 Bald Mountain Rd, Auburn Hills, family event to check out the night sky with a local astronomy group, create a winter craft by a campfire, and walk an illuminated woodland trail, www.facebook.com/CityofAuburnHills, (248) 370-9353.
• Introduction to Classic Cross-Country Skiing, a two-hour class is offered Jan. 24, Feb. 7 or Feb. 28, at Independence Oaks County Park, 9501 Sashabaw Road, Clarkston. The two-hour class includes skis, poles and boot rental. The cost is $35/person/session and each session is limited to 20 participants. Classes meet at the boathouse. Preregistration and payment is required by calling 248-625-2044 Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. or visiting www.oakgov.com/community/oakland-county-parks/events.
• Independence Oaks County Park in Independence Twp. has groomed trails, cross-country skiing rental equipment and restroom facilities. Call the park at 248-625-0877 for current information about hours and equipment availability. For hikers or those with their own cross-country or snowshoe equipment, ungroomed trails can be enjoyed at Addison Oaks north of Rochester, Highland Oaks in Highland, Lyon Oaks in Lyon Township, Orion Oaks in Orion Township and Rose Oaks near Holly, www.oakgov.com/parks/recreation/Pages/Winter-Fun.aspx.
• Winter Park is open Fridays-Sundays, through March 1, at Bowers Farm, 1219 E Square Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills. Timed tubing tickets must be purchased in advance at www.schoolfarm.org/winter-activities, $17+, festive lights during evening hours. Activities include viewing farm animals, hay tower, bonfires, shopping at Farm Kitchen and Farm Store for local products, free admission to the park.
• The Rink at Royal Oak, ice skating at Centennial Commons in downtown Royal Oak, weather permitting, www.therinkatroyaloak.com.
• The Rink at Stine Community Park is open daily through the season, 241 Town Center, at the corner of Town Center and Civic Center Drive at the City of Troy Civic Center Campus, free admission, skate rentals are $3 residents, $5 non-residents, https://rec.troymi.gov/parks___facilities/the_rink/index.php, weather permitting.
• Riley Park Ice Rink in downtown Farmington open through February, 23600 Liberty St., Farmington, www.downtownfarmington.org, open daily, weather permitting, free admission, bring skates, https://farmgov.com/Community/Parks-and-Recreation/Riley-Park-Ice-Rink.
• Huron-Clinton Metroparks in Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne, metroparks.com. Park entrance fees apply. Annual vehicle passes are $40 for residents or $45 for non-residents. Senior citizen pricing on annual passes are available in-person at toll booths or park offices with ID as proof of age.
• Michigan State Parks and Recreation Areas, michigan.gov/dnr. Park entrance fees apply.
Support resources
• For access to local community services, dial 211 (844-875-9211) or text zip code to 898211, for information and referrals to physical and mental health resources; housing, utility, food, and employment assistance; and suicide and crisis interventions, United Way, https://unitedwaysem.org/get-help.
• The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides 24/7 confidential support for people who are suicidal or in emotional distress, or who know someone who is. Calls and text messages to 988 route to a 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline call center, www.fcc.gov/988Lifeline.
• National Domestic Violence Hotline, 800-799-7233, available 24/7.
• Common Ground's Resource & Crisis Helpline is available 24/7 - call or text 800-231-1127.
• Veterans Crisis Line, dial 988 and then press 1 to connect to the Veterans Crisis Lifeline. For texts, veterans should text the Veterans Crisis Lifeline short code: 838255.
BRRmingham Blast is 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday Jan. 24, in downtown Birmingham, featuring ziplining and more. (Photo courtesy of Birmingham Shopping District)
Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive Thursday that she said would help explore geologic hydrogen as a new source of energy in Michigan, requiring state agencies to plan for needed infrastructure and policy changes.
Whitmer announced the initiative during a speech at the Detroit Auto Show, saying if Michigan’s hydrogen reserves are proven to be safe and viable, they could lead to a “massive economic boom, creating jobs, lowering costs and reducing our reliance on foreign fuel.”
The directive, her first of 2026, will require the Department of Natural Resources to develop a report on any legal impediments to leasing “state-owned subsurface rights” for hydrogen exploration and the Michigan Public Service Commission to develop a report on needed infrastructure upgrades.
“The directive could make us a national leader in this space,” Whitmer said Thursday, according to her prepared remarks for the event. “We’re already seeing a lot of interest in Michigan because we have more potential reserves under our feet than every other state.”
The reports from state agencies are due by April 1, according to the directive. The Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy must file one on “statutory and regulatory authority to permit” geologic hydrogen exploration and any impediments in current law.
A statement from the governor’s office described geologic hydrogen as “a natural energy resource with the potential to serve as a fuel source at a scale and price that is competitive with fossil fuels.” Hydrogen releases water when it is burned, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, while petroleum and other fossil fuels release planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide.
The USGS released a report last year indicating Michigan could be rich with geologic hydrogen that could be tapped for fuel. The state has three elements needed for hydrogen accumulation, the report authors said: a source of hydrogen generation, porous reservoirs that store hydrogen and seals to prevent hydrogen from leaking.
The four-page directive that Whitmer signed said Michigan could see “billions of dollars in new economic activity by tapping into a fraction of the U.S. hydrogen economy.”
In the statement from the governor’s office, Judd Herzer, director of mobility research and innovation at Michigan State University, said Whitmer’s directive sent a signal that Michigan was serious about leading in geological hydrogen.
“With the right coordination across state agencies, research institutions and the private sector geological hydrogen can move rapidly from scientific promise to practical application, supporting hydrogen-powered mobility, clean energy independence and the advanced manufacturing opportunities that will define Michigan’s next era of innovation,” Herzer said.
At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding ongoing research into safe hydrogen handling and storage practices, according to the department’s website.
Geologists predict Michigan rich with hydrogen
Exploration of underground hydrogen stores is in the early stage, USGS geologists said in their report published last year. Finding underground hydrogen stores has historically been considered a problem or gone unreported, since companies were typically on the hunt for petroleum and lacked the tools to measure hydrogen.
Geologists used multiple data sets that covered the 48 contiguous states to determine where hydrogen reserves were likely, said Geoffrey Ellis, a USGS geochemist at the Central Energy Resources Science Center and coauthor of the report. He said geologists need to do more focused work to better understand reserves in Michigan.
“The fact that a state like Michigan has so much interest is great,” Ellis said. “Hopefully, we can work with the state (geological) survey and do that type of effort.”
Sara Ryker, USGS associate director for energy and minerals, described the report as “tantalizing” when it was released in January 2025.
“For decades, the conventional wisdom was that naturally occurring hydrogen did not accumulate in sufficient quantities to be used for energy purposes,” Ryker said in 2025. “This map is tantalizing because it shows that several parts of the U.S. could have a subsurface hydrogen resource after all.”
The USGS report sparked interest in recovering hydrogen from below ground rather than making hydrogen by splitting molecules such as water, said Todd Allen, University of Michigan College of Engineering associate dean for research.
While the report shows what federal geologists believe to be the best places for finding geologic reserves of hydrogen, there hasn’t been much test drilling to determine whether the geologists’ predictions are right, Allen said.
“To a great extent, it’s unknown,” he said. “I think the interest in the state of Michigan is that the USGS map said we ought to have a lot.”
It could be a big deal for Michigan if the geologists turn out to be right and the state has large quantities of hydrogen available to recover, he said.
Hydrogen fuel cells could power heavy vehicles, such as ships and trucks. Some clean energy advocates see it as a way to decarbonize heavy-duty transportation and shipping as well as some heavy industries like steelmaking that traditionally rely on coal to power furnaces.
A Hydrogen fuel truck parked during a news conference rehearsal at the new Hydrogen fueling station True Zero operated by FirstElement Fuel in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. The Hydrogen fueling station is the first of its kind opened in the United States, near the Port of Oakland. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Hydrogen fuel typically is created by separating molecules that contain hydrogen – taking the H₂ out of H₂O, for example.
“If we could bring hydrogen out of the ground, it would be much cheaper,” Allen said. “If people can recover geologic hydrogen at the same rate we do natural gas, it would be much, much cheaper (than other sources of hydrogen) and it would be much, much easier to bring it into commerce.”
Separating out that hydrogen requires a lot of electricity and sometimes is done using natural gas, which releases fossil fuels is costly and negates some of the climate benefits of hydrogen. Extracting hydrogen from the ground also could be a win for the climate, Allen said, because it wouldn’t require electricity.
During a speech in Detroit on Tuesday, Republican President Donald Trump referenced hydrogen, appearing to joke — as he has many times during previous campaign stops in Michigan — that he would “pass on” using hydrogen to power cars.
“I’m hearing it’s not testing so well,” Trump said. “It’s fine, except when there’s an explosion, you’re a goner.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Energy funded regional hydrogen hubs to study and produce hydrogen fuel and develop a supply chain for its use. Michigan is part of one such hub, the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, known as MachH2, which was set to receive up to $1 billion in federal funding as of 2023.
The hub programs are on “standby,” Allen said. Most were in the planning stage when Trump took office and had not yet received much of their promised funds, according to Allen.
“To a great extent, I think the hubs are just stuck,” Allen said. “There’s not a lot of action. I think it’s because the administration is not on a path to provide the big funding.”
Geologic hydrogen may be more appealing to the Trump administration because it requires a familiar process of extracting resources from underground, much like fracking natural gas or drilling for oil, Allen said.
“It could be a (good) thing just in general, a good, useful way of powering modern society, but it could be that the federal government shifts their focus, too,” Allen said. “It’s an extension of the thing we know how to do.”
Governor seeks new North American trade pact
Whitmer’s speech at the auto show Thursday touched on tariffs, Michigan’s economy and some of her goals for her final year as the state’s governor. She can’t run for reelection this fall because of term limits.
She called on Trump’s administration not to abandon the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which is up for review this year.
“Instead, we should build on the best parts and make it even better,” Whitmer said, according to her prepared remarks. “The USMCA has some of the strictest auto rules of any free trade agreement in the world.
“It raised wages for workers in all three countries, and guaranteed that more parts were made in the U.S. Is it perfect? No. But without our allies, we do not stand a chance.”
The USMCA started in 2020, during Trump’s first term in the White House. But in recent days, he’s downplayed it. During his trip to Michigan on Tuesday, he labeled it “irrelevant.”
Also, on Thursday, Whitmer called on the Legislature to get a new state budget to her desk by June 30.
“With so much uncertainty, we owe it to local governments, schools, and businesses leaders to enact a transparent, timely budget,” Whitmer said. “I’m confident we can get it done.”
FILE: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers the 2025 State of the State address Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Mich. (Katy Kildee/Detroit News via AP)
Today is Sunday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2026. There are 347 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Jan. 18, 2019, Jason Van Dyke, the white Chicago police officer who gunned down Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.
Also on this date:
In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reached the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he dubbed the “Sandwich Islands.”
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress in a confidential message for $2,500 in funding for exploration of Western lands all the way to the Pacific, an early step in the eventual formation of the Lewis and Clark expedition that would ultimately accelerate American expansion westward beyond the Mississippi River.
In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brought his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.
In 1958, Canadian Willie O’Ree became the first Black player in the National Hockey League as he made his debut with the Boston Bruins.
In 1977, scientists identified the bacteria responsible for the deadly form of atypical pneumonia known as Legionnaires’ disease.
In 1990, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was arrested after FBI agents caught him smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room in a videotaped sting. (Convicted of drug possession, Barry spent a few months in prison, returning to win a D.C. Council seat in 1992 and his fourth and final mayoral victory in 1994. He died in 2014.)
In 1993, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.
In 1996, Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson, citing “irreconcilable differences” after less than two years of marriage.
In 2013, former Democratic New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on charges that he’d used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the devastated city was struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. (Nagin was later convicted, served time, and was released from prison in 2020.)
In 2025, a gasoline tanker exploded in Nigeria, killing at least 70 people as individuals sought to transfer gasoline from one tanker into another truck as numerous bystanders looked on.
Today’s birthdays:
Actor-filmmaker Kevin Costner is 71.
Actor Mark Rylance is 66.
Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier is 65.
Actor Dave Bautista is 57.
Actor Jesse L. Martin is 57.
Rock singer Jonathan Davis (Korn) is 55.
Football Hall of Famer Julius Peppers is 46.
Actor Jason Segel is 46.
Actor Carlacia Grant is 35.
Singer and activist Montana Tucker is 33.
Spanish soccer star Aitana Bonmati is 28.
Actor Karan Brar is 27.
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, wearing sunglasses, is escorted out of the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018, after testifying in his first degree murder trial for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)
The state’s quarterly theme-park injury report for the final three months of 2025 includes a Nov. 25 death following a ride on Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor roller coaster at Universal Studios Florida.
An unidentified 70-year-old woman was unresponsive and later died at the hospital, according to the report compiled by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The state’s major theme parks self-report about visitors injured on rides if they result in at least 24 hours of hospitalization.
The summary “reflects only the information reported at the time of the incident,” the report says. “Due to privacy-related concerns, the department does not receive updates to initial assessments of a patron’s condition.”
A Universal spokesperson said via e-mail that the company does not comment on pending claims. The Orlando Sentinel has requested records for the scene and date from the Orlando Police Department.
The Mummy ride, which opened in 2004, reaches 40 mph as it rolls through dark Egyptian-themed scenes and fiery effects amid appearances by animatronic Imhotep and scarab beetles plus a drop hill of 39 feet. It has appeared on the quarterly report about 20 times since opening, including the death of an Apopka man who fell from the loading platform onto the tracks in 2004. He died after a related surgery, and his death was ruled an accident by the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner’s office.
The latest injury report, posted Thursday, has a mix of spinning rides and high-intensity attractions and roller coasters, including Epic Universe’sStardust Racers.
On Nov. 6, a 78-year-old man had chest pain after being on the Epic coaster, and on Nov. 14, a 61-year-old man had cardiac arrest on the ride. Stardust Racers is considered Epic’s most intense ride, with dueling trains going up to 62 mph and a top height of 133 feet. Both sides include one inversion, sudden launches and intertwined-rails moments. The coaster debuted with the Universal Orlando Resort park in May.
Of the nine fourth-quarter reports filed from the three Universal Orlando parks, five involved Epic rides. Other incidents included Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, where a 41-year-old woman had numbness and visual disturbance on Oct. 4; on Oct. 25, a 19-year-old woman had altered mental status during Mario Kart: Bower’s Challenge, a flat ride with virtual-reality elements; and on Nov. 14, a 47-year-old woman had nausea after Yoshi’s Adventure, a slow-paced flat ride.
At Islands of Adventure, a 45-year-old women had motion sickness and stroke symptoms after riding the Incredible Hulk Coaster on Oct. 13 and a 49-year-old woman had chest pain after being on Jurassic World: VelociCoaster on Nov. 30. Also at IOA, a 61-year-old woman had lower back spasms after Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, a drop-tower ride.
At Walt Disney World, three Epcot incidents are on the new report. On Nov. 12, a 72-year-old woman was disoriented after exiting Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, an indoor coaster; on Nov. 23, a 59-year-old woman had breathing difficulties while exiting Test Track; and on Dec. 28, a 35-year-old woman lost consciousness while on The Seas With Nemo and Friends, a low-speed dark ride that travels through an aquarium.
At Magic Kingdom theme park, a 65-year-old woman felt chest pain after Peter Pan’s Flight ride on Oct. 28, and a 42-year-old woman had a seizure while on Mad Tea Party, the spinning ride commonly called the teacups, on Nov. 22.
A 75-year-old woman had “stroke-like symptoms” aboard Slinky Dog Dash, a roller coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, on Nov. 28.
Is it time to rewrite Michigan’s constitution? Voters will answer that question in 2026.
A ballot proposal asks whether state residents want to call a constitutional convention. The last one happened in 1961. Voters approved a new constitution in 1962.
By law, the issue must appear on the ballot every 16 years. Voters rejected convention calls in 1978, 1994, and 2010.
Justin Long is an associate professor at Wayne State University’s School of Law. He’s an expert on state constitutions, including Michigan’s. He says the 16-year cycle gives voters time to think about how state government works and whether to change it.
“The thought was if there’s something seriously wrong with the structure of state government, it’ll take us a few years to figure it out,” he says. We’ll give it a try for a few years, and by 16 years, it’s time to decide whether it’s working or not.”
What does it say?
Proposal 1 will appear on the November 2026 ballot as follows:
A PROPOSAL TO CONVENE A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DRAFTING A GENERAL REVISION OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION
Shall a convention of elected delegates be convened in 2027 to draft a general revision of the State Constitution for presentation to the state’s voters for their approval or rejection?
Voters can either say “yes” or “no.”
It’s not a popular question
So why haven’t voters felt the need to call for a new convention in over 60 years? Long says caution may be one reason.
“I think neither political party [Democratic or Republican] feels assured that they’ll be able to control the convention, because delegates are elected directly by the people,” he says. “And the delegates would presumably know that if they did anything too wild, the voters wouldn’t pass it.”
Justin Long is an associate law professor at Wayne State University.
That said, delegates could either tweak parts of the constitution or rewrite the entire document. For example, Long says they could decide which offices get elected and which ones don’t.
“They could decide whether we want to have two houses of the Legislature or just one,” he says. “They’re basically unfettered at that point.”
If voters do call for a constitutional convention, another election would take place within six months. Long says that’s when voters would choose delegates.
“There’d be one delegate elected from every House district and one from every Senate district,” he says. “They would then hire staff, and then they would meet and debate.”
Long says once the delegates have drafted a new constitution, they submit it to the voters.
“And that vote would be by a simple majority,” he says.
If voters say no to a constitutional convention this year, it wouldn’t come up again until 2042.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
By STEVE PEOPLES, MIKE CATALINI, JESSE BEDAYN and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a year into his second term, President Donald Trump’s work on the economy hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many people in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC survey.
Just 16% of Republicans say Trump has helped “a lot” in addressing the cost of living, down from 49% in April 2024, when an AP-NORC poll asked Americans the same question about his first term.
At the same time, Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of the president’s leadership on immigration — even if some don’t like his tactics.
John Candela, 64, who lives in New Rochelle, New York, said the cost of living hasn’t improved for his family — his salary and bills remain the same as before.
“Still paying $5 for Oreos,” he said. But he’s willing to be patient: “I would expect it to be different by the time his four years are up.”
The poll reveals signs of weakness among consumers on the economy, especially Trump’s core campaign promise to reduce costs. Inflation has cooled somewhat, but prices on many goods are higher than they were when the Republican president took office last January.
There is little sign overall, though, that the Republican base is abandoning Trump. The vast majority of Republicans, about 8 in 10, approve of his job performance, compared with 4 in 10 for adults overall.
“I don’t like the man as a human being. I don’t like his brashness. I don’t like his roughness. I don’t like how he types out his texts all capital as if he’s yelling at everybody. But what I approve of is what he is doing to try and get the country on track,” Candela said.
Trump not improving costs, most Republicans say
On various economic factors, Trump has yet to convince many of his supporters that he’s changing things for the better.
Only about 4 in 10 Republicans overall say Trump has helped address the cost of living at least “a little” in his second term, while 79% said he helped address the issue that much in his first term, based on the 2024 poll. Just over half of Republicans in the new poll say Trump has helped create jobs in his second term; 85% said the same about his first term, including 62% who said he helped “a lot.”
Only 26% of Republicans in the January survey say he’s helped “a lot” on job creation in his second term.
And on health care, about one-third of Republicans say Trump has helped address costs at least “a little,” while 53% in the April 2024 poll said he helped reduce health care costs that much during his first term. Federal health care subsidies for more than 20 million Americans expired on Jan. 1, resulting in health care costs doubling or even tripling for many families.
In the town of Waxahachie, Texas, south of Dallas, 28-year-old three-time Trump voter Ryan James Hughes, a children’s pastor, doesn’t see an improvement in his family’s financial situation. He said the medical bills haven’t declined.
But, he said, “I’m not looking to the government to secure my financial future.”
Immigration is a strength among the Trump base despite controversy
The new poll underscores that Republicans are largely getting what they want on immigration, even as some report concerns about the federal immigration agents who have flooded U.S. cities at Trump’s direction.
About 8 in 10 Republicans say Trump has helped at least “a little” on immigration and border security in his second term. That’s similar to the share in the April 2024 poll that saw a positive effect from Trump’s leadership on immigration and border security during his first term.
Most Republicans say Trump has struck the right balance when it comes to deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, and about one-third think he hasn’t gone far enough.
But Trump’s approval on immigration has also slipped among Republicans over the past year, falling from 88% in March to 76% in the new poll.
Kevin Kellenbarger, 69, a three-time Trump voter who retired from a printing company, said his Christian faith led him to the Republican Party. The Lancaster, Ohio, resident thinks the president’s immigration crackdown is necessary, though he expressed dissatisfaction at the recent killing of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis.
“I don’t like anybody getting killed, but it wasn’t Trump’s fault,” Kellenbarger said, adding that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, “let millions of people in. They have to be taken out.”
Several Republicans said in interviews they thought the aggressive tactics seen recently in Minneapolis went too far, suggesting that Trump should focus more on immigrants with criminal backgrounds as he promised during the campaign.
Overall, just 38% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s leadership on immigration, while 61% disapprove.
“These families that are being separated and they’re just here to try to live the American dream,” said Republican Liz Gonzalez, 40, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a self-employed rancher and farmer from Palestine, Texas.
At the same time, Gonzalez said, she doesn’t think people opposed to the crackdown should be interfering at all. “I think if they just let (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), you know, like the patrol people, do their jobs, then they would see it’s not — it doesn’t have to be chaos,” she said.
More Republicans see the country improving than their personal lives
About two-thirds of Republicans say the country as a whole is “much” or “somewhat” better off than before Trump took office, but only about half say this about themselves and their family.
The broad sense that the country is moving in the right direction may be counteracting Republican dissatisfaction with the state of the economy.
Phyllis Gilpin, a 62-year-old Republican from Booneville, Missouri, praised Trump’s ability to “really listen to people.” But she doesn’t love his personality.
“He is very arrogant,” she said, expressing frustration about his name-calling. But she said the divisive politics go both ways: “I really, honestly, just wish that we could all just not be Democrat or Republican — just come together.”
The AP-NORC poll of 1,203 adults was conducted Jan. 8-11 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. The poll included interviews with 404 Republicans, and the margin of sampling error for Republicans overall is plus or minus 6 percentage points.
FILE – President Donald Trump gestures to a chart as he speaks at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Dec. 9, 2025, in Mount Pocono, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Today is Friday, Jan. 16, the 16th day of 2026. There are 349 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Jan. 16, 1996, Wayne Newton performed his 25,000th Las Vegas show. Newton had performed more shows as a headliner in Las Vegas than any other entertainer.
Also on this date:
In 1865, Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decreed that 400,000 acres of confiscated land in the South would be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former enslaved people. (The order, later revoked by President Andrew Johnson, inspired the expression, “40 acres and a mule.”)
In 1942, actor Carole Lombard, 33, her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and 20 other people were killed when their plane crashed near Las Vegas, Nevada, while returning to California from a war-bond promotion tour.
In 1989, three days of rioting began in Miami when a police officer fatally shot a Black motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of his passenger. (The officer was convicted of manslaughter, but later acquitted in a retrial.)
In 1991, in a televised address to the nation, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced the start of Operation Desert Storm, a combat operation that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
In 2001, Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was fatally shot by one of his own bodyguards.
In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first elected female head of state in Africa when she was sworn in as president of Liberia.
In 2018, authorities in Denmark charged inventor Peter Madsen with killing Swedish journalist Kim Wall onboard his private submarine. (Madsen would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison.)
Today’s birthdays:
Opera singer Marilyn Horne is 92.
Hall of Fame auto racer A.J. Foyt is 91.
Country musician Ronnie Milsap is 83.
Filmmaker John Carpenter is 78.
Actor-dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen is 76.
Singer Sade (shah-DAY’) is 67.
Boxing Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. is 57.
Model Kate Moss is 52.
Actor-producer-songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda is 46.
Baseball great Albert Pujols is 46.
Singer-Songwriter Yebba is 31.
Entertainer Wayne Newton stands by a picture of himself promoting the Wayne Newton Theatre at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1999. The Boyd Gaming Corp., owner of the Stardust hotel-casino, signed Newton to a 10-year contract to star at the new theatre for 40 weeks a year. The Stardust showroom will be renamed the Wayne Newton Theatre when he begins his regular run there on Jan. 24. (AP Photo/Jeff Klein)
She created an initiative to help empower Black mothers and their health through art.
“I’ve been a birth photographer, a newborn photographer for about a decade now, capturing families as they’re welcoming their babies, going through their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journeys,” she says.
Lashae created the “Black Birth Joy” project in 2024 to amplify positive Black maternal health stories and help families to be seen and heard through photography.
She was inspired by a birthing photography session where she witnessed a Black mom giving birth in Ann Arbor with a supportive team.
“It was just so beautiful and just to see everyone working together to facilitate such a beautiful birth really, you know, restored faith in me and the health care system… We can have these safe births and those stories need to be shared more,” she shares.
The project was originally funded by the Region 9 Perinatal Quality Collaborative in Washtenaw County to support the birth journeys of five families.
Lashae says she wanted to capture different birthing spaces: home, the hospital, and birth centers. After photographing the families’ journeys, she wrote blogs and distributed the stories.
“I am a woman of color. I think because I’ve been through the system, I’ve lived through the experience to be able to use my talents, to use my voice, to empower families that look like me, that don’t always usually feel seen or feel heard, especially in birth spaces,” she explains.
She says the project also highlights birth workers in metro Detroit.
Creating more opportunities for joy
Lashae says the application for Black Birth Joy project for this year will roll out in April or early spring. In the meantime, she hopes to raise $50,000 to support 10 families for birth photography packages, as state funding is no longer available.
“Hopefully by then there’s been some funding or some, you know, a blessing of some sort so that I can still do this work. And I want to say I want to double the impact,” she shares.
Families will receive birth photography and newborn photography, along with an album. Lashae says the photos will also be shared in art spaces and caregiving spaces across Wayne and Washtenaw County in hopes to spread the impact.
“Just to have a statement piece that says you’re welcome here, you’re safe here, our establishment is a champion for Black maternal health,” she says.
Lashae hopes the work inspires families and creates safe spaces for patients when receiving services from caregivers.
“Photographs do invoke conversations, and then conversations create change,” she states.
She says it’s important to create positive stories to negate stereotypes and bias for Black birth experiences.
“Walking in and seeing a beautiful portrait of a birthing woman smiling and in joy… it combats what the statistics say,” she expresses, adding that she hopes the photography inspires families and helps combat bias by medical professionals.
In September-December 2026, Lashae will host a mini show for Black Birth Joy at the University of Michigan’s Lane Hall, as part of the Women’s and Gender Studies for the fall semester.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
The Detroit Auto Show roars into Huntington Place this week for media previews and other events before opening to the public this weekend.
Organizers say this year’s car extravaganza differs from the others in its more-than-a-century history.
Executive Director Sam Klemet says the auto show is filled with the kinds of hands-on activities customers simply cannot duplicate using the internet.
Listen: Detroit Auto Show steers towards hands-on content
The following interview has been edited for clarity.
Sam Klemet: It’s something for everyone. We’ve talked about the various iterations of what the show has been over the last number of years. And I think it was originally considered more of a media show and then it’s been identified as a consumer show. And I’m really looking at it now as more of a content show.
We’re still going to have some special reveals from some of our OEM partners and some other specialty vehicles. We’re going to have some great news conferences as part of our Mobility Global Forum with newsmakers from all over the world. Of course, we have the charity preview where we’ll raise millions of dollars for local children’s charities. And then we open to the public.
It’s a chance for everyone to come under one roof and see kind of what the auto industry is about, where it’s going, and also what the city of Detroit is about.
Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You have a section this year that deals with off-road vehicles and experiences connected with them. What is that all about?
SK: It’s called our Michigan Overland Adventure. Obviously in the state of Michigan there’s a great culture, particularly in the northern part of the state, where people want to do off-roading. There’s a lot of camping. There’s a lot of trails. And we want to tap into that heritage and show off the modern vehicles that really are tapping into that type of lifestyle.
The Michigan Overland adventure has all kinds of support from OEMs like Ford, General Motors and Toyota, among others. We also have a group called the AEV, which has these incredible modified vehicles that go off-road. It’s a really exciting space. It’ll be a cool setup in terms of the display. It really showcases that outdoor culture.
QK: Back in the day people would come to the auto show, look at the vehicles and see if maybe there was one they wanted to buy. Is there more of a thrust now to give people these “experiences” as opposed to them just looking and going, “Man, that’s a cool car?”
SK: Absolutely. I think that’s how people’s relationships with cars are now. They want to see every intricacy of it. They want to see the technology and the dashboard. They want to get under the hood, they wanna see the tires, they wanna see every bit of the vehicle. And our show offers them that access. Not only to see the ones that are being displayed on the floor, but to get into them on our test tracks and feel what they’re like to a degree. The show is very much more hands-on than think what it’s traditionally been, a lot more activations and engagement.
QK: You yourself were a bit hands-on recently, riding along with a caravan of custom cars coming to the Detroit Auto Show from California.
SK: This is the centennial of Route 66 and we kicked off the auto show in Santa Monica. We have nine historic vehicles, Detroit-based vehicles, that made the drive all the way along Route 66. They’re ending the trip in Detroit, which isn’t a part of Route 66. But we’re the Motor City and we’ve got a great partnership with the group that’s doing the drive, America’s Automotive Trust.
Those vehicles that are coming across country will be on display in our concourse at the auto show. We’ll have videos from the entire ride. If you follow us on social media, you can see the day-to-day recaps of what that experience has been like.
And I think that’s been great because it connects our auto show across the country. And along the way, we’re telling these incredible stories of people’s relationships with vehicles, their relationship with driving and how it all connects back to Detroit. It’s been an exciting way to kick off the auto show this year.
QK: It’s no secret that the automotive industry has faced some uncertainty over the past year with President Trump’s use of tariffs and rolling back some regulations. Some consumers used to say that they thought of the auto show as kind of a one-stop gigantic dealer showroom. They would actually buy vehicles after they saw them there. In this current climate, do you see those kinds of sales continuing now at the auto show? Or is there a different purpose for such an event?
SK: I think this is a place first and foremost where people can come and see the cars that are on the market and see what’s coming in 2026 and beyond. Having an event like our Mobility Global Forum is a perfect stage to get a pulse on the industry, where people from all over the world come and talk about the direction automakers are going. And consumers get to interact with these vehicles, whether they’re in the market to buy one or they just want to see how the technology is evolving. I think that’s what an auto show is all about.
But as we evolve, we also want to be a place where people can come down even if they’re not in a market for a car, to learn about the vehicles and also have some fun. That’s why we added so much more entertainment, so much more arts and culture to the show, just kind of on the periphery of what we have on the main floor with our vehicles.
One of the new elements we have this year is our Visit Detroit interactive experience. That’s intended to engage young people with the auto industry. We’ve had people like Ford’s CEO talk about the need to have more auto technicians across the country. And we see this as an opportunity to engage young people in the science, technology, engineering, and math skills that are needed for those careers. So we serve a multipurpose, not only to showcase vehicles, but hopefully to uplift the industry at large through workforce development and other things.
QK: Some people I’ve spoken with say the auto show sounds nice, but they can look up all the details about the vehicles on the internet. So, they say, why even have an auto show? What’s your response to that?
SK: You can get all the information in the world online, there’s no doubt about that. But to actually interact and see the vehicles in person, I think, really does change a perspective. So I think the more that people can engage with these vehicles, the better. And actually I would encourage people to do some research about them before they come down to the auto show. It’ll give them a fuller picture and then they can most closely identify the vehicles that they want to key-in on when they get there. So I think that you can blend all of those things.
I know there’s a big push for nostalgia nowadays. But I would tell people that the 2026 auto show is not a show like we’ve had before. It’ll be very unique, a very different positive engagement experience that we haven’t had in a number of years. I think it’ll be a show that really resets the tone of what a Detroit Auto Show is all about.
We’ve paid attention to every single detail. From the minute people walk into the concourse to the minute they get to the back of the hall, everything is much more immersive. We have more brands on the floor. We have more vehicles. We have more opportunities for people to engage with content. I just think it’s bigger. It’s more robust. There’s more to do. There’s more to see. And there’s more information to be gathered.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
A Hamtramck-based artist residency program has received a $175,000 innovation award for three years.
Entry Points is a program that offers housing and studio space for returning citizens who were formerly incarcerated juvenile lifers. The program began through the work of Hamtramck Free School, an alternative educational organization that facilitates creative writing and art workshops in Michigan prisons, working with juveniles who were sentenced to life without parole.
Entry Points Artistic Director Jonathan Rajewski and Director of Transitions, Kyle Daniel-Bey, are working together to help returning citizens reintegrate into public life, including presenting their work publicly.
Rajewski says art is a way for people to express themselves.
“We work within the prison system are artists and, you know, art has and continues to be an important conduit of self-expression. It’s a rejection of censorship. It’s an articulation of resistance. It’s an acknowledgement of, you know, the social structures that dictate our livelihoods,” he explains.
Second chances
Daniel-Bey was a juvenile lifer after being incarcerated at 17. He was released from prison due to the Miller v. Alabama 2012 ruling by the U.S. Supreme court.
The ruling says, “No juvenile defendant may face a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, no matter how serious the crime,” according to Justia.
Daniel-Bey says he got a second chance.
“When the Miller ruling came out in 2012, it was finally a door opening because I was never supposed to come home. And art was a way to sustain myself in prison, not only financially, but spiritually and emotionally,” Daniel-Bey shares.
Daniel-Bey says he met Jonathan in 2013 at the Macomb Correctional Facility through a creative writing workshop. He says they became friends.
“I came home in 2018. Since then, we’ve continued our creative exploits through what was created,” he says.
Supporting returning artists
Entry Points gives people an entry point back into society and a chance to make art. The first resident moved in October 2022, when a former juvenile lifer needed a place to live once he was released.
Rajewski says the artists can use the space for studio visits, visits from curators, and exhibition opportunities.
“Our first resident was a writer and almost strictly in the literary realm. And so those relationships tend to be focused more in the literary realm,” he shares.
Daniel-Bey says former juvenile lifers often come home often without resources, family, or support.
“As an adult that goes to prison and spends 20 years and comes back out, they at least have an experiential understanding of having to have paid a bill or navigating as an adult, get a job and all those types of things. We had none of that. And so what we do is we are helping to cushion that landing,” he explains.
Paying it forward
The grant allows at least three artists to use the space over the period of three years, allowing additional staff to be hired. Meanwhile, the program is run by volunteers.
The award is given by the JM Kaplan Fund to 10 awardees for their work in tackling social justice, environmental conservation, and heritage preservation.
Rajewski says he’s grateful for this opportunity to give back.
“This amplifies the work that we’re doing… in the free school, we are largely made up of volunteers. There are no paid employees. There really aren’t any specific kinds of leadership. It’s a sort of shared kind of democratically organized discursive project,” he exclaims.
Daniel-Bey says that besides supporting the resident artists, the funding will support other artists.
“We also do microgrants to other artists. We have other juvenile lifers that have home support and family support, but they may not be have the material support to get their art supplies,” he explains.
Healing power
Daniel-Bey says art is a universal language that can heal people.
“Their art is trying to speak to the soul and the spirit of people and bring them into community, bring them into unity and into a more humanistic understanding of what drives not only the children that do these things, but the society that produced them,” he says.
Rajewski says the funding supports the work they’ve been doing for years.
“When I met Kyle, he was never coming home, and now here we are working outside on this project together. And it is just an endlessly powerful experience to support this work together,” he says.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
But at the local level, despite weak participation, officials say democracy is strong, that the trash is getting picked up on time, and that services are being properly distributed, especially in more urban areas.
That’s what Stephanie Leiser found in a recent survey of Michigan municipal leaders. She’s the Director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, and a lecturer at University of Michigan. The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with Leiser to learn more.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
While President Trump was inside Motor City Casino on Tuesday, protesters outside were braving the elements and aggression by the Detroit Police Department.
A group of demonstrators marched from Cass Park in front of the Masonic Temple and to the sidewalk in front of the casino at the corner of Temple and Grand River Avenue.
After being allowed to peacefully assemble for a few minutes, Detroit Police forced protesters down Grand River to a less visible location on the casino’s west side at Trumbull Ave and Elm Street.
A Detroit Police officer – who would not give his name, only the numbers 168 – threatened protesters and members of the press with arrest if they did not move. At least two protesters were arrested.
What the protesters have to say
Sarah Reed of Farmington Hills carried an inverted American flag – a symbol of distress. She stood in front of the advancing officers in an act of defiance.
Farmington Hills resident – and granddaughter of a holocaust survivor – Sarah Reed protests President Trump as a line of Detroit Police force demonstrators to a different location.
Reed was surprised by their aggression. “It’s a public sidewalk, and if you and I were there this evening, this morning, before any of this, they’d have no issue with us being on the sidewalk,” Reed said.
Reed, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, said she wants the president to resign. But she had a message for Democrats too. “Get off your asses and fight,” Reed said.
Troy resident Jake Malacos used his lunch hour to protest. He says he was happy to be around protesters because a show of solidarity is good for the community.
As for why he was picketing: “Well, the corruption from the Trump administration. The brutality. The murder of Renee Good. Most of the policies that he’s putting out are pretty rough for me,” Malacos said.
About 1,000 anti-Donald Trump protesters marched down Trumbull Avenue to Detroit Public Safety on January 13, 2026.
Troy resident Jake Malacos used his lunch hour to join the anti-Trump protest in Detroit on January 13, 2026.
An unidentified man is arrested by Detroit Police for refusing to protest President Donald Trump in a different location outside of Motor City Casino on January 13, 2026.
About 1,000 anti-Donald Trump protesters marched down Trumbull Avenue to Detroit Public Safety on January 13, 2026.
About 1,000 protesters demonstrated outside Motor City Casino in Detroit where President Donald Trump was speaking to the Detroit Economic Club.
About 1,000 anti-Donald Trump protesters marched down Trumbull Avenue to Detroit Public Safety on January 13, 2026.
Once DPD had pushed the protesters to the designated 1st Amendment area on Trumbull, about 1,000 protesters marched to Detroit Public Safety.
Officially, Detroit Police do not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but they do share office space.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
How does a global community provide for the needs of its citizens without destroying the planet? That’s the crux of “Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth,” a new book out this month.
In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, society shut down for a few months. As humans stayed inside, animals returned to their old habitats and pollution eased as industry slowed.
Stan Cox, author of “Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth”
Retired researcher—and new metro Detroit resident—Stan Cox looks at how that “anthropause” could be a preview of the necessary societal changes to save lives and the planet.
He spoke with All Things Considered – Detroit host Russ McNamara last month. Click on the media player to listen or read selected transcripts below.
Listen: New book examines equitable degrowth as necessary to combat climate change
Russ McNamara, WDET: Why did you write this book?
Stan Cox, Author: The main point I’m making in the book is imagining that we as a society, if we were to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and get by just on the energy that could be generated other ways; and if we stopped plundering the earth for minerals and cutting down forest and causing ecological damage; and we had less energy and materials, and had to allocate them carefully: people know that’s going to mean sacrifice. What am I going to have to give up and so forth?
And what I’m saying in the book is okay, yeah, there are certain things, obviously that will have to be given up. But let’s consider all of the dangers and nuisances, terrible stuff that we put up with an advanced industrial society that has all this energy and materials running through it.
We would be saying goodbye to a lot of those harms and ills by simply not doing a lot of the stuff that requires so much energy input. So the rest of the book, then, is going through specific technologies and activities and so forth that are really harmful to people and the environment, of course, that we would not have the fuel to undertake them, or we would be using resources for meeting people’s basic needs, and we wouldn’t be spending a lot of energy on these other things.
RM: You discuss this and I’m reminded of data centers to run artificial intelligence. People certainly don’t seem to want them and definitely don’t want these in their backyard because there is this concern about the high cost of electricity, and the amount of groundwater that is needed.
SC: That’s absolutely right. One of the big reasons these communities don’t want them is that they create this horrific noise at very high decibel levels and low low frequency noise, which is especially dangerous to human health. When I started writing the book, there wasn’t as much being said about A.I. and the data centers at that time, so I did eventually incorporated them, but the beginning of the second chapter is about noise pollution and and I just used it. It’s seemingly a very small thing, but it really brings out other issues. The leaf blower, especially the gas powered leaf blower, also produces this low frequency and very high volume sound—about eight times the decibel level that the World Health Organization says is safe – and they’re producing a wind about the speed of an EF five tornado. The low frequency sound can travel like three football fields. It’s still above the safe limit.
RM: So what are the societal impacts? Let’s say we start degrowth right now. What are the benefits?
SC: We can’t go on like we’re on the trajectory that we’re on now, because. A degrowth is going to happen. Either a chaotic, brutal degrowth where it’s a Mad Max kind of future, because we’ve tried to force growth to continue and have destroyed ecosystems
Or we can have a planned, rational degrowth that ensures that there’s enough for everybody and that we’re not causing ecological collapse. But there’s no way that growth can continue at this rate.
Sometime in the past three years, we passed a milestone. The quantity of human made stuff—that is everything that human society has manufactured or built or produced—if you weigh all of it up, the mass of all of that exceeds the total mass of all living things on Earth, all plants, animals, microbes, et cetera, and that quantity of stuff being produced is is doubling every 20 years. And clearly that can’t go on.
Herb Stein, an economist from the 70s or 80s was kind of the Yogi Berra of economists. He had a line: “if something can’t go on forever, it won’t” and that’s where growth cannot go on forever. So we have to pull back, create what I called in the book an “anthropause” of our own, and try to have a rational, safe and just reduction in the amount of economic activity for the good of everybody.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Recent numbers suggest that homicides fell well below 200 last year. That was the first time that happened in six decades.
There are a number of things that are given credit for the decline. Community violence interventionists who are preventing harm, and police officers that focus on de-escalation and complete their homicide investigations. It can also be attributed to increased surveillance with things like Project Green Light.
Now, Mayor Mary Sheffield is creating an Office of Neighborhood & Community Safety, which will focus on mental health issues, after-school programs and resident access to jobs to further increase safety.
What exactly will the office do? And why is a holistic approach needed to increase resident safety?
Shantay Jackson is the Director of the National Offices of Violence Prevention Network at the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, which will help establish Detroit’s office. She spoke with The Metro‘s Sam Corey.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Login
