The Detroit City Council on Tuesday approved a contract supporting facial recognition in Detroit, even after a vast majority of public comments were in opposition to the measure.
The measure, approved by a 6-3 vote, approves spending $219,984 to cover costs associated with upgrades and maintenance. The council’s vote was preceded by a morning protest and an hour of public comment from residents opposing facial recognition, arguing the technology is “racist.”
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The Michigan Strategic Fund has agreed to subsidize a major portion of a proposed $19.7 million redevelopment of the former Lincoln Motor Co. headquarters in the Northwest Goldberg neighborhood of Detroit.
More than half of those funds will derive from public taxpayer assistance, including a $5 million state grant, $2.7 million in additional tax transfers, and another $3.4 million in tax breaks.
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Election integrity advocates believe something fishy is going on in Wayne County with absentee ballots, and they say Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is undermining the security of the process there and across Michigan.
Glen Sitek of the Election Integrity Fund provided an exclusive statement to The Michigan Star.
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The Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) voted Wednesday to authorize a strike if an agreement can’t be reached over COVID-19 concerns.
The vote, with 91 percent in favor, authorizes DFT leadership to call a strike if the union and the Detroit Public School Community District (DPSCD) don’t reach an agreement.
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Amazon plans to create 3,500 new tech and corporate jobs in six cities nationwide, the company announced Tuesday.
Most of the company’s new hires will be located in Amazon’s New York office with the rest being added in Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Phoenix and San Diego, according to a press release. Amazon also announced plans to expand the six offices to accommodate the new hires.
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The state of Michigan Thursday announced a plan to explore the viability of developing a 40-mile corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles between Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor.
The state selected Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) that partners with Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to develop the project.
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As the automotive industry fills the demand for electric cars, the country – and the world – will need thousands more plug-in charging stations for vehicles powered by batteries alone. And because they’re being asked to invest before that demand arrives, automakers and charging companies are struggling to raise the numbers.
Currently electric vehicles make up only about 1.3% of total new vehicle sales in the U.S., according to the Edmunds.com auto site. Electrics are much bigger in other countries, accounting for 2.6% of global new vehicle sales last year, the International Energy Agency says. There are now 26,000 electric vehicle charging stations open to the public in the U.S., with more than 84,000 plugs.
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Detroit Police Chief James Craig credited the city’s success in remaining peaceful during nationwide protests and riots with having a city that has stood together and a police force that refuses to give up “the ground to the radicals.”
In an appearance on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight on Tuesday, Craig told Carlson that “we don’t retreat here in Detroit.”
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The City of Detroit is seeking photos of those who lost their lives to the coronavirus to display as part of a city memorial event.
Detroit will host Detroit Memorial Day on August 31 to honor city residents who died because of COVID-19, Mayor Mike Duggan announced earlier this month. The city plans to install large photo boards with the submitted pictures along a route on Belle Isle.
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President Trump on Monday threatened to send federal law enforcement into several cities, including Detroit, in order to quell continuing unrest there.
Trump recently sent federal law enforcement to Portland to break up protesters, who had approached a federal courthouse and set a fire outside of it, according to The Detroit News. He said that the federal officers had done “a fantastic job in a very short time.”
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A bust of Christopher Columbus in downtown Detroit was removed by order of the Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday.
The 110-year-old statue is currently in storage, according to the Detroit Free Press.
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After a relatively peaceful day of protests Saturday, the Detroit Police Department declared an increasingly agitated and violent crowd of roughly 250 people an unlawful assembly when they refused to leave the downtown Detroit area on the second night of unrest following the controversial death of George Floyd.
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Michigan Democrats plan to censure the state lawmaker who “broke protocol” by thanking President Trump for recommending hydroxychloroquine. State Rep. Karen Whitsett (pictured right) earlier this month credited the controversial drug for saving her life after she had battled the deadly coronavirus for weeks.
Elected Democrats “do not belong to themselves,” explained Jonathan Kinloch, the chairman of the 13th Congressional District Democratic Party Organization (pictured left).
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Sunday that bankruptcy is not an option for Michigan in response to comments last week from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Whitmer appeared on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday. Stephanopoulos asked her if default was on the table for Michigan.
“No, and it’s outrageous for Senator McConnell to even suggest that,” Whitmer said. “But that’s what the matter is. Our general fund budget when adjusted for the inflation is the same size it was during – when Richard Nixon was our president. We have been incredibly smart stewards and we have not made some of the investments I think we should have as a state because of this artificially low number that we’ve been working with.”
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A Democrat state representative from Detroit, Michigan, who has been battling the coronavirus for weeks, is crediting hydroxychloroquine for saving her life, the Detroit Free Press reported on Monday. State Rep. Karen Whitset thanked President Trump – even as the corporate media continued to criticize him for touting an “unproven” drug—because she would not have asked for it unless he had brought it up.
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The Michigan National Guard is helping Detroit prepare additional space to care for COVID-19 patients.
About 20 members of the Michigan National Guard will help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) form a Federal Medical Station (FMS) at TCF Center in Detroit from Tuesday through today.
Those members will manage inventory to prepare for the care of those with COVID-19.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden lost his temper Tuesday after a Detroit auto worker accused him of “actively trying to end our Second Amendment rights.”
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Former United Auto Workers President Gary Jones was charged with embezzlement, racketeering, and tax evasion Thursday in a massive FBI probe that has brought down several of the union’s top leaders.
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A new Michigan poll predicts former Vice President Joe Biden will emerge victorious over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Michigan’s Democratic primary.
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The city of Detroit announced the inauguration of its new Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship (ACE) with former Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley as its director.
Riley and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan officially declared the new joint public-private government initiative at a Thursday press event.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) spoke this week at an event hosted by the Young Democratic Socialists of America at Wayne State University.
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The architect of a Detroit-based drug ring described by many former customers as the “McDonald’s for drugs” was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison last Friday.
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The Coalition for Property Tax Justice filed a federal class-action lawsuit claiming the city of Detroit, Wayne County, and state officials “eviscerated” every homeowners’ due process rights by denying them the ability to appeal inflated property taxes.
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The Michigan Democratic Party’s Black Caucus endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in the Democratic Party, at least according to Biden’s campaign.
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The overtaxation scandal in Detroit underscores the importance of giving President Trump four more years in the White House, lest the tax-and-spend Democrats drown working Americans in a flood of new taxes.
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Detroit overtaxed homeowners more than $600 million because it didn’t reevaluate property values after the Great Recession until 2017.
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A new survey of Michigan voters found that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s approval rating has dropped by more than seven percentage points since June.
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The Iraqi Consulate General in Detroit held a memorial event for Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the leader of a designated terrorist organization who was killed last week in a U.S. airstrike.
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U.S. Attorney General William Barr recently spoke at a press conference in Detroit where he announced a new federal program that will “surge an unparalleled amount of federal backing” to the most dangerous cities in America.
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A public interest law firm sued the City of Detroit Wednesday for failing to clean dead and duplicate registrants from its voter rolls.
Read MoreFour disgruntled members of the Wayne State University Board of Governors claimed this week that they voted to terminate President M. Roy Wilson during a Monday night meeting.
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Four disgruntled members of the Wayne State University Board of Governors claimed this week that they voted to terminate President M. Roy Wilson during a Monday night meeting.
Read MoreFounders Brewing Company has settled a lawsuit filed by an ex-employee who accused the company of promoting an “overtly racist culture” where employees frequently used racial slurs.
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Founders Brewing Company has settled a lawsuit filed by an ex-employee who accused the company of promoting an “overtly racist culture” where employees frequently used racial slurs.
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The United Auto Workers’ strike against General Motors cost the company $1 billion in earnings and that number is expected to rise to $3 billion on the year, CEO Mary Barra said in a phone call with investors this week.
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Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson recently announced that the school will begin providing free tuition to all high school graduates from Detroit, which prompted some members of the Board of Governors to call for his resignation.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) joined with State Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) for a press conference Monday on the site of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) new assembly plant in Detroit.
Read More Workers with the Michigan-based Founders Brewing Company reportedly plan to protest against their employer in the coming days in response to a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the business.
Read More Wayne State University announced this week that it will begin awarding free tuition to all Detroit students who graduate from high school.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) will join Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for a rally this weekend in Detroit where the first-term congresswoman is expected to endorse Sanders in his bid for the presidency.
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Democratic Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced his chief of staff Alexis Wiley and two other city employees will undergo training as a punishment for deleting emails detailing the city’s relationship with a nongovernmental organization (NGO).
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in early October the arrest of a Warren, Michigan man who vandalized the agency’s Mt. Elliot office with profanity-laced graffiti.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) doubled down on her claim that Democrats are considering how to detain White House officials who defy congressional subpoenas in a recent interview.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel attacked President Donald Trump in a speech Saturday, saying his deflection of the impeachment inquiry is “how democracies die.”
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United Auto Workers alerted its members Sunday that negotiations with General Motors “have taken a turn for the worse.”
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Detroit Police Chief James Craig was on Fox News Thursday to discuss Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI-13) recent visit to the department’s Real Time Crime Center, where the first-term congresswoman suggested that only African Americans should be allowed to work as facial recognition analysts.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) told her constituents Tuesday night that Democratic lawmakers are looking for ways to arrest White House officials who don’t comply with congressional subpoenas.
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Michigan native David Goode launched one of the country’s most successful snow and water ski companies in 1975 when he was just 19 years old. He was a member of the U.S. downhill ski team at the time, but his career was sidetracked by an ankle injury.
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The United Auto Workers announced Sunday that local union leaders from across the country voted to go on strike after its collective bargaining agreement with General Motors expired Saturday night.
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Eight Michigan Kmart stores, including several in Mid-Michigan will close, leaving only a trio of locations in the state to which the chain traces its roots.
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