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Tag: Michigan News

  • EPA Ends Credits for Automatic Start-Stop Vehicle Ignition, a Feature Zeldin Says ‘Everyone Hates’

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    DETROIT (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced an end Thursday to credits to automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles, a device intended to reduce emissions that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said “everyone hates.”

    In remarks with President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House, Zeldin called start-stop technology the “Obama switch” and said it makes vehicles “die” at every red light and stop sign. He said the credits, which also applied to options like improved air conditioning systems, are now “over, done, finished.”

    Zeldin repeated the generally-debunked claims that start-stop systems — which are mostly useful for city driving — are harmful to vehicles, asserting Thursday that “it kills the battery of your car without any significant benefit to the environment.”

    This latest Trump administration move to cut automotive industry efforts to clean up their cars and reduce transportation-driven emissions came as Zeldin and Trump also announced a broader repeal of the scientific finding known as endangerment that has been the central basis for regulating U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

    Start-stop is a technology that automatically shuts down a vehicle’s engine when a driver comes to a complete stop, and then automatically restarts the engine when the driver takes their foot off the brake pedal. Developed in response to the 1970s oil crisis, the feature was intended to cut vehicle idling, fuel consumption and emissions.

    About two-thirds of vehicles now have it, providing drivers with anywhere from 7% to 26% in fuel economy savings, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers. Start-stop also causes a split-second lag in acceleration, a point of irritation for some consumers and automotive enthusiasts.

    Burning gasoline and diesel fuel for transportation is a major contributor to planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and more, according to the EPA. By implementing the systems, automakers could earn credits toward meeting federal emissions reduction rules.

    “Countless Americans passionately despise the start/stop feature in cars,” Zeldin wrote in a post on X on Tuesday teasing the announcement. “So many have spoken out against this absurd start-stop-start-stop-start-stop concept.”

    The announcement made good on Zeldin’s promises last year to “fix” the feature. Start-stop is “where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy,” Zeldin said in a post on X last May. “EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it,” he wrote at the time.

    Jeep-maker Stellantis welcomes the deregulatory effort, a spokesperson’s statement said: “We remain supportive of a rational, achievable approach on fuel economy standards that preserves our customers’ freedom of choice.”

    A Ford Motor Co. statement said: “We appreciate the work of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin to address the imbalance between current emissions standards and customer choice.”

    General Motors deferred comment to the auto industry group Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

    “I’ve said it before: Automotive emissions regulations finalized in the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers to achieve given the current marketplace demand for EVs,” said John Bozzella, president of the alliance. “The auto industry in America remains focused on preserving vehicle choice for consumers, keeping the industry competitive, and staying on a long-term path of emissions reductions and cleaner vehicles.”

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Car Crashes Into Detroit-Area Airport Entrance, Injuring 6

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    DETROIT (AP) — A car crashed through the entrance of the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on Friday evening, striking a ticket counter and injuring six people, airport officials said.

    The driver was taken into custody, the Wayne County Airport Authority said in a statement. The cause of the crash was not yet known, and airport police were investigating.

    The WCAA Fire Department treated six people at the site.

    Video posted on social media showed a blue, four-door sedan stopped, with its hood and truck popped open, in front of Delta Air Lines counters in what appeared to be a departure lobby.

    Glass and other debris lay strewn on the ground at the entrance, and yellow police tape cordoned off the scene.

    The driver’s name was not immediately released.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Michigan Teachers Weaving Lessons on Jan. 6 Uprising Into History Classes

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    Ask any history teacher in Michigan how their lessons could be better and they will tell you that they need to incorporate more current events into the curriculum, East Kentwood High School history teacher Matt Vreisman insists.

    State standards require social studies teachers to cover pre-Columbian history to the present, and incorporating modern historical events — such as the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection — is a challenge, adds Whitehall High School history teacher Brian Milliron.

    Though Tuesday is the five-year anniversary of the event, Vriesman, Milliron and other teachers found a way to weave the insurrection into their advanced placement history classes months ago when they taught about the American Revolution, the establishment of the Constitution and the contentious presidential election in 1800.

    John Adams, the nation’s second president and a Federalist, was the incumbent candidate but lost to Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s third president and the Democratic-Republican Party candidate. It was the nation’s first exchange of presidential power between rival political parties, and it was peaceful, and that established a precedent for a peaceful change of power every election since.

    It’s during that lesson that Vreisman and Milliron teach their students about the anomaly after the 2020 election, when then-incumbent Republican President Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden and violence erupted at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, as members of Congress met to certify the election results.

    Milliron asks junior and senior students in his class what they remember and then fills in the blanks about what they don’t know.

    “By connecting the present day event that kids literally saw to the stuff in their curriculum it helps them understand why we have a peaceful transfer of power and the negative effects when we don’t,” said Milliron.

    Vriesman, who was the 2023 National History Teacher of the Year, also asks his students what they know about Jan. 6, shows them a PBS documentary about the day, talks about democracies that have failed throughout history and asks them to write a reflection about why a peaceful transition is important to a democracy.

    “Connecting historical content to current events gives students authentic practice evaluating evidence, recognizing different viewpoints, and disagreeing respectfully about the most relevant issues of today,” said Vriesman.

    He regularly weaves in major events that occurred during his students’ lifetimes that connect to different parts of American history.

    “Our goal as social studies is to create informed citizens who are ready to engage in matters of substance. And current events hook students so much more.”

    Michigan’s most recent curriculum standards, issued in 2019-20, became less prescriptive on the topics teachers are expected to teach so it’s likely many history and government teachers are weaving Jan. 6 into their lessons, said Nick Orlowski, executive director of the Michigan Council for History Education. At the same time, standards require teachers to cover wide time frames of history, so there is a lot to cover.

    The American History Association recently issued a report that touched on how politics affects history instruction, Orlowski said.

    “It showed that teachers are teaching from a neutral stance,” said Orlowski, adding that many teachers build inquiry into lessons — where students are presented with a historical question and do the work of historians. “They gather sources on the topic to reach their own conclusion. That seems to be how teachers are teaching. They are not bringing their own politics into the classroom.”

    Vriesman is working to help other teachers have tools to incorporate contemporary history into their lesson plans. In November, he launched a nonprofit, Empowering Histories, which provides free, inquiry-based history lessons to teachers across the country.

    This is important, Vriesman said, because scholarship settled long ago about how race, racism and slavery shaped American institutions is now being framed as “opinions” or “one side of the story.” He noted that 20 states have recently passed laws restricting classroom discussions of race or history and most teachers said in a poll that political pressures lead them to modify lessons.

    “Historians and the public are not having the same conversation,” said Vriesman. “Within the academic field, certain truths about the past are not up for debate. But in many communities, those same truths are framed as controversial. That disconnect has real consequences in classrooms. It leaves teachers without support, and students without the tools they need to analyze evidence, evaluate claims, and make informed contributions to our democracy.”

    This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • Winter Storm Packing Snow and Strong Winds to Descend on Great Lakes and Northeast

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    A wild winter storm was expected to bring strong winds, heavy snow and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone barreled across the northern U.S. and left tens thousands of customers without power.

    The storm that hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes on Monday brought sharply colder air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain that led to treacherous travel. Forecasters said it intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops.

    Nationwide, more than 153,000 customers were without power early Tuesday, more than a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us.

    As Monday’s storm moved into Canada, the National Weather Service predicted more inclement weather conditions for the Eastern U.S, including quick bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds known as snow squalls.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned that whiteout conditions were expected Tuesday in parts of the state, including the Syracuse-metro area.

    “If you’re in an impacted area, please avoid all unnecessary travel,” she said in a post on the social media platform X,

    Snow piled up quickly in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Monday, where as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) fell in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Ryan Metzger said additional snow was expected in the coming days, although totals would be far lighter.

    Waves on Lake Superior that were expected to reach 20 feet (6 meters) Monday sent all but one cargo ship into harbors for shelter, according to MarineTraffic.com. Weather forecasting on the lakes has improved greatly since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 after waves were predicted at up to 16 feet (4.8 meters).

    The fierce winds on Lake Erie sent water surging toward the basin’s eastern end near Buffalo, New York, while lowering water on the western side in Michigan to expose normally submerged lakebed — even the wreck of a car and a snowmobile.

    Kevin Aldrich, 33, a maintenance worker from Monroe, Michigan, said he has never seen the lake recede so much and was surprised on Monday to spot the remnants of old piers dating back to the 1830s. He posted photos on social media of wooden pilings sticking up several feet from the muck.

    “Where those are at would typically be probably 12 feet deep,” he said. “We can usually drive our boat over them.”

    Dangerous wind chills plunged as low as minus 30 F (minus 34 C) across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota on Monday. And in northeast West Virginia, rare, nearly hurricane-force winds were recorded on a mountain near Dolly Sods, according to the National Weather Service.

    In Iowa, after blizzard conditions eased by Monday morning, high winds continued blowing fallen snow across roadways, keeping more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Interstate 35 closed. State troopers reported dozens of crashes during the storm, including one that killed a person.

    On the West Coast, the National Weather Service warned that moderate to strong Santa Ana winds were expected in parts of Southern California through Tuesday, raising concerns about downed trees in areas where soils have been saturated by recent storms. Two more storms were forecast later this week, with rain on New Year’s Day potentially soaking the Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time in about two decades.

    Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York; Corey Williams in Detroit; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut; and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • Regulators Approve DTE Contracts for Michigan’s First Hyperscale Data Center

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    Despite criticism that they were acting too fast, state utility regulators on Thursday approved DTE Energy’s proposal to supply power for Michigan’s first hyperscale data center — while tacking on a host of conditions that aim to protect ratepayers from subsidizing the facility.

    The approval, made over shouts of disapproval from onlookers gathered in a Lansing conference room, drew cheers from business interests and ire from skeptics who had called for a deeper public review of the 19-year deal.

    Defending the decision, Michigan Public Service Commission Chair Dan Scripps told the gathered crowd that after reviewing them in detail, “I would put the contracts that are in front of us today on par or better with any that have been approved in the country.”

    He and other commissioners said they had concluded the deal would save ratepayers money and would not sacrifice energy reliability.

    But a wave of public speakers lined up to condemn the vote, raising concerns about lost farmland and habitat, rising power rates, climate pollution from fossil fuels used to power the facilities and additional pollution from the water used to cool servers.

    “We won’t be happy, I suppose, until the Great Lakes run dry, until the farmlands all are gone, until all the air is polluted, said Tim Bruneau, a Saline Township resident who has vocally opposed the 1.4-gigawatt facility planned by tech firms Oracle, OpenAI and Related Digital.

    “And guess what happens when that happens? We’re extinct.”

    The decision paves the way for tech firms OpenAI, Oracle and Related Digital to team up on Michigan’s first hyperscale data center, a $7 billion Stargate facility where massive buildings full of computer servers will train artificial intelligence models on a 575-acre site south of Ann Arbor in Saline Township.

    In a statement, DTE spokesperson Ryan Lowry lauded the commission’s order, saying the contracts “protect our customers — including ensuring that there will be no stranded assets — while enabling Michigan’s growth.”

    Supporters of the project have hailed it as an economic development win for the state that will produce millions annually in taxes and 450 permanent jobs. Opponents contend that’s not a sufficient return, citing the risks that energy-hungry data centers could pose to Michigan’s environment and energy grid.

    The facilities are massive energy users — the Stargate project’s expected 1.4 gigawatts of demand is equivalent to that of a large American city.

    The commission’s decision came amid anxiety that residential ratepayers could wind up subsidizing the substations, poles, wires, battery storage facilities and other infrastructure needed to deliver all that power.

    But commissioners agreed with DTE’s conclusion that the deal with Oracle subsidiary Green Chile Ventures would actually save ratepayers $300 million annually, by tapping the tech firm to pay for battery storage and other costs to connect it to the grid.

    “That is a real cost savings at a time when affordability is so important,” said commissioner Katherine Peretick.

    The decision comes weeks after DTE filed a proposed contract with the MPSC, asking regulators to quickly approve the terms without a public hearing. Such ex-parte decisions are allowed when a contract won’t affect other utility customers’ rates

    But Attorney General Dana Nessel and other skeptics of the deal had called for a deeper review, contending that the publicly visible version of DTE’s proposed deal was so heavily redacted, it was impossible to vet DTE’s claims of affordability.

    Commissioners tacked on a host of conditions to their approval, giving DTE 30 days to agree to them. Among the most significant, DTE must agree to absorb the financial hit if, for whatever reason, the projected $300 million cost savings fails to materialize.

    “If the affordability analysis turns out to be overly optimistic for any reason, DTE bears the responsibility of any extra costs,” Peretick said.

    Other requirements include:

      1. In the event of an electricity shortage, the data center must be curtailed before other electric customers.

      2. DTE must file a host of documents showing how it will pay for data center related costs without subsidies from other customers. That includes renewable energy that, under Michigan’s clean energy law, must eventually be installed to serve the facility.

      3. Within 90 days, DTE must file an application for a standard rate structure applying to major power users like hyperscale data centers, which would eliminate the need for one-off contract requests like the one DTE filed for the Stargate project.

      4. DTE must file quarterly reports tracking the data center’s power demand and an annual report assessing Green Chile’s finances.

    Scripps said the contract terms and additional conditions set by commissioners “led us to believe that we could meet the standard of reasonableness and in the public interest.”

    The data center’s projected power demand would increase DTE’s electric load by 25%. DTE officials plan to absorb that surge without building new power plants. Instead, the utility will buy energy on the open market and get more use out of its existing power plants, including using them to charge the batteries during off-peak hours when other customers aren’t using much energy.

    DTE has told investors it aims to bring on as much as 8.4 gigawatts of total data center load in the coming years, a projection that would nearly double the utility’s total power demand.

    Consumers Energy, meanwhile, is projecting 2.65 gigawatts in new demand from data centers by 2035, a 35% increase in peak demand.

    Concerns that the utilities could pollute or overtax Michigan’s water and electricity systems have resulted in bipartisan pushback, including a new bill to repeal the recently enacted tax exemptions that have lured the industry to Michigan.

    Industry supporters, meanwhile, contend Michigan risks falling behind economically if it refuses to host the booming hyperscale industry. While data centers provide few jobs, they contend the facilities are the lynchpin of a broader tech economy in which Michigan is struggling to compete.

    “Michigan needs to decide if it wants to participate in the 21st Century economy, or rest on those who came before us and spend that wealth down,” said Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah. He cast it as a race in which “Michigan already has ground to make up.”

    Since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a 6% sales and use tax exemption that could save hyperscale facilities millions if not tens of millions annually, Michigan’s publicly announced hyperscale proposals have skyrocketed from zero to at least 15.

    Some localities have enacted moratoriums on data center development, looking to buy time to craft regulations governing noise, road setbacks and other concerns about the facilities. In Saline Township, meanwhile, a resident has filed a legal intervention seeking to block the Stargate project over allegations that township officials violated the Open Meetings Act when they approved a legal settlement that made way for the development.

    In addition to the utility contracts, developers need permits from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to install diesel-powered backup generators and begin construction activities that would impact wetlands and the Saline River.

    This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ Rarities Are in Lawrence Kasdan’s University Archive

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    ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Researchers, documentary filmmakers and others will soon be able to get their hands on screenwriter and director Lawrence Kasdan’s papers at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

    Archivists are about a quarter of the way through cataloging the 150-plus boxes of material that document the 76-year-old filmmaker’s role in bringing to life iconic characters like Indiana Jones and Yoda, and directing actors ranging from Geena Davis and Glenn Close to Morgan Freeman and Kevin Costner.

    “All I wanted to ever do was be a movie director. And so, all the details meant something to me,” Kasdan said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I couldn’t be happier to have this mass of stuff available to anybody who is interested.”

    The archive includes scripts, call sheets and still photos — including a few rarities.

    Before Costner became an Oscar winner and Hollywood icon, he worked various studio jobs while taking nighttime drama lessons. His break — or so he thought — came when Kasdan cast him in 1983’s “The Big Chill.”

    Costner played Alex, whose death brings his fellow Michigan alums together. Unfortunately his big flashback scene ended up on the cutting-room floor.

    What are believed to be among the only existing photographs of the famously deleted scene are part of the Kasdan collection, now housed in Ann Arbor.

    “Different people will be interested in different things,” Kasdan said, pointing to his work writing the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” screenplay as one possible destination for researchers. The archive features audio cassette recordings of Kasdan discussing the film with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. It also includes Polaroids taken of cast and crew members on the sets of his movies.

    There are props, too, including a cowboy hat from the 1985 Western “Silverado,” worn by none other than Costner. Kasdan and the kid from California would work together again on “Wyatt Earp” in the ’90s. Costner also starred in “The Bodyguard,” which Kasdan wrote.

    A number of unproduced scripts also are part of the collection.

    “I’ve always considered myself a director and a writer. And if you are really interested in any particular movie, you can follow the evolution of that movie in the archive,” Kasdan said.

    Library staff members are working chronologically through Kasdan’s material, meaning the papers for Kasdan’s earliest work — including “Body Heat” and “The Big Chill,” as well as the scripts for two “Star Wars” classics, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” — can be accessed first.

    The remaining material should be completely processed by late 2026, said Phil Hallman, the curator of the collection. Hallman hopes to have Kasdan visit, perhaps next fall, to see the archive and take part in a symposium.

    Kasdan’s papers are part of the University of Michigan Library’s Screen Arts Mavericks and Makers Collection, which includes Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Jonathan Demme, Nancy Savoca and John Sayles. Kasdan, who grew up in West Virginia and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1970 and a master’s two years later, is the lone Michigan alum among the group.

    “To be there, held in the same place as those wonderful directors, is really a great honor,” Kasdan said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Chase Sui Wonders’ Harvard Astrophysics Detour Led Her to Hollywood

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    NEW YORK (AP) — You don’t need to major in astrophysics at Harvard to become an actor — but it doesn’t necessarily hurt, either.

    “I thought that’s what you go there to do. It’s like why are you paying all this money to go to this fancy school if you’re not going to study a hard science to try to save the world? … But I was quickly humbled,” chuckled Chase Sui Wonders, who began failing classes within her first few weeks. Her college application essay had been about making movies, so she decided she “might as well just pivot back to what I know best.”

    “The attention’s definitely weird, but can feel good,” said the 29-year-old, flashing her warm smile throughout the interview. “The most energizing thing about the whole thing is when you get recognition, the phone starts ringing more, and these other avenues are opening up that I always kind of dreamed about.”

    “The Studio” amassed an astounding 23 Emmy nominations in its debut season, taking home a record-breaking 13 wins. But Wonders may not have seemed like an obvious choice for comedy with her past roles, including the 2022 film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and her breakout role, the teen-themed series “Genera+ion,” which was canceled by HBO Max after one season. But all it took was one virtual video audition to land the role of Quinn Hackett, the hyper-ambitious, cutthroat assistant-turned-creative executive under studio head Matt Remick, played by the show’s co-creator and co-executive producer Seth Rogen.

    “I had always … felt like, ‘I think I’m kind of funny,’” she laughed, acknowledging feeling she had to prove herself working alongside comedic heavyweights like Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz. “That pressure felt really daunting and scary. But I think, hopefully, I rose to the occasion.”

    Despite mere degrees of separation from Hollywood as the niece of fashion designer Anna Sui, an acting career seemed unattainable growing up in Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. Born to a father of Chinese descent and a white mother, Wonders and her siblings were primarily raised by their mom after their parents divorced.

    An extremely shy child and self-described tomboy, she developed a love for sports — she won high school state championships in both ice hockey and golf — and spent much of her childhood making videos with her siblings. Thanks to her mother encouraging her to take performance arts classes, she was able to break out of her shell. But coming from an achievement-driven family, all signs pointed to a career in business.

    A corporate track nearly began after struggling to break into the industry, and she even considered taking a job in Beijing to begin her adult life in the business world. But with only a week to decide on the job offer, she decided to give Hollywood one more shot. Three months later, she booked “Genera+ion.”

    “There have been different moments in my life where I’ve been seriously humbled,” said Wonders, who has aspirations of directing. “It just has taught me just not to take it all too seriously. … I do feel absurdly lucky that I get to be on set with all my friends and telling a bunch of jokes and being a weirdo on screen.”

    Next up for Wonders is the Gregg Araki-directed “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde, and she’ll star in A24’s horror thriller “October.” She’ll also appear in the upcoming “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao directing the pilot. And of course, a second season for “The Studio” is in the works.

    Red carpets and magazine covers couldn’t be a more antithetical life for the girl who assumed she’d climb the executive ranks at one of the major car companies headquartered in Detroit. Instead, she’s climbing the Hollywood ladder — and she wouldn’t tell her younger self to speed up the process.

    “It’s so fun how life surprises you,” said Wonders. “I wouldn’t tell her anything. I would tell her it’s all going to make sense in the rearview mirror — but no spoilers.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • Rural Michigan Broadband Access to Jump With $920M in Fed Funding

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    Efforts to expand high-speed internet across rural northern Michigan will get a $920 million boost from a federal grant, which over the next four years is expected to make broadband available to an additional 200,000 homes and businesses.

    Combined with $550 million in matching funds from providers, the almost $1.5 billion investment is a potential game-changer for rural counties, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

    The federal grant was announced in 2023, but it’s taken two years to get projects in local communities lined up for disbursement of those funds. In four years, the investment is expected to add 31,000 miles of fiber-optic lines across the state.

    “When we expand access to affordable, high-speed internet, we open doors to jobs, healthcare, education, opportunity and so much more,” Whitmer said in a statement. “We’re making historic investments across the state to ensure that no matter where someone lives or works, they have the connectivity they need to thrive and reach their full potential.”

    “We know that access to reliable, high-speed internet is no longer a luxury,” said Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer for the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office. “This funding … helps Michiganders get access to education, visit doctors, apply for jobs and so much more.”

    Currently, about 9 of 10 Michigan homes have access to internet service of at least 100 megabits per second, the minimum rate the Federal Communications Commission sets for high-speed internet, also called broadband. That puts Michigan in the middle of the pack among states.

    Yet there are 23 counties — mostly in northern Michigan or the Upper Peninsula — where under 60% of homes have broadband access, according to data from Connect Nation, a nonprofit working to close the digital divide.

    In Lake County, just 22% of homes have high-speed internet available; In Osceola County, it’s 28%.

    By comparison, Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties all have broadband access surpassing 99%.

    Katy Xenakis-Makowski, superintendent of Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools in Otsego County, told Bridge Michigan that many of her students and half her teachers don’t have high-speed internet at home.

    “They just started to put broadband in my neighborhood this summer,” Xenakis-Makowski. “We had an ice storm and were out (of school) for eight days. “People say, ‘Oh, you should just make them up by going online,’ and we can’t.”

    Government support is needed to expand high-speed internet infrastructure to rural regions where there aren’t enough potential consumers to make the expansion financially viable. The UP’s Luce County, for example, has a population of about six people per square mile.

    Michigan has made notable progress in increasing access, as well as the speed of the internet available. In 2018, just 4.3% of households had access to 1 gigabit-per-second service, compared to 45.2% in 2025.

    After the announced expansions are complete, “Michigan will be closer to universal availability than ever before,” said Frederick. “There will still likely be extremely remote and rural locations that may still need to be connected, but nearly all Michigan households and businesses will be able to access high-speed internet after these investments are made.”

    Even when internet lines are laid, there’s the problem of service cost in areas that have a high poverty rate. Nationally, between 3% and 8% of households where broadband is available do not have internet in their homes, either because of cost or choice.

    As of 2023, more than 492,000 Michigan households had either no internet access or no availability of broadband, according to the Michigan Digital Equity Plan, published by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Another 730,000 households faced barriers related to affordability, device access or digital literacy.

    This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Best of Detroit 2025

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    Our poll has officially crossed the finish line — and Detroit, you sure burned rubber!

    After weeks of honking, hyping, and high-octane competition, the results of the Metro Times Best of Detroit are in. You nominated your favorite taco slingers, dive-bar legends, tattoo wizards, vinyl pushers, and much more — and now it’s time to crown the true kings and queens of the Motor City.

    The votes have been tallied and the champions are in the winners’ circle. Here’s the best of Detroit, according to you.

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  • The Government Shutdown Prompts the Cancelation of Some Veterans Day Events

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    Normally on Veterans Day, volunteers gather at the Riverside National Cemetery in California to place flags alongside more than 300,000 gravesites. But not this year.

    The longest federal government shutdown on record is curtailing and outright canceling parades, ceremonies and other events across the U.S. that are normally held to mark Veterans Day. It’s another fallout of the shutdown that has disrupted flights and food assistance, and was already being squarely felt by military families who are worried about their paychecks.

    In California, organizers of “A Flag for Every Hero” said they couldn’t move forward with the event on Tuesday without access to restrooms, traffic control and other needs for the thousands of participants. Elsewhere, a lack of federal employees and access to military facilities has scrubbed other Veterans Day events.

    “We have a responsibility to provide them the resources they need, and unfortunately with the shutdown we’re unable to do that,” Laura Herzog, founder and CEO of Honoring Our Fallen, which organizes the Riverside National Cemetery event.

    Many communities will still hold Veterans Day gatherings, including some of the nation’s largest and well-known events such as the annual observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and the New York Veterans Day Parade.

    The disruption to a federal holiday that is intended to honor those who have served in the armed forces comes as military families face uncertainty week to week about their pay. The Trump administration has found ways to pay troops twice since the shutdown began Oct. 1.

    The Texas National Cemetery Foundation canceled an annual Veterans Day event at the cemetery in Dallas-Fort Worth, saying organizers wouldn’t have time to stage the ceremony even if the shutdown ended soon. In Virginia, city leaders in Hampton cited concerns about a lack of servicemembers to participate in its annual parade because of the shutdown.

    “Our veterans deserve to be recognized with great pomp and circumstance,” Hampton City Manager Mary Bunting said in a news release. “Without the presence of our active-duty military, we are concerned that the parade would appear sparse and that the recognition might fall short of the honor our veterans so richly deserve.”

    Organizers of Detroit’s annual Veterans Day parade say they’re moving forward with the Sunday event, but it won’t include an appearance by a U.S. Army band or a helicopter flyover. Others are relying on even more help from volunteers than usual to make up for the lack of federal resources.

    Despite the upheaval, some communities are still trying to find ways to honor veterans even as events are canceled.

    In Mississippi, the Gulf Coast Veterans Association canceled its annual parade in Pass Christian. But the group said it would use funds for the event to instead provide Thanksgiving dinners for veterans and active-duty members.

    “While we share in the disappointment, we are choosing to turn this setback into a blessing,” the group said in a Facebook post.

    When U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales learned that the Veterans Day ceremony at Fort Sam Houston Cemetery in San Antonio wouldn’t take place, the Republican congressman’s office took up organizing the annual event.

    Gonzales, a Navy veteran whose grandfather is buried at the cemetery, said that meant working with nonprofits to find someone to sing the national anthem and to provide chairs for attendees.

    “We honor our veterans no matter what, and that’s exactly what we did,” Gonzales said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Tech Giants Announce $7B Data Center, Michigan’s First Hyperscale Campus

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    Michigan is poised to receive its first hyperscale data center after three tech giants revealed themselves Thursday as the developers behind a proposed 1-gigawatt-plus AI project on farmland in Saline Township.

    The news that OpenAI, Oracle and Related Digital will build the massive computing facility for their Stargate joint venture comes hours after officials with DTE Energy, the utility serving the Saline area, announced on a quarterly earnings call that the company had inked a deal to provide 1.4 gigawatts of power to an unnamed data center project. DTE Spokesman Ryan Lowry confirmed Thursday afternoon that the project is the Saline Township campus.

    Construction is slated to begin in 2026. The Wall Street Journal reported its value will top $7 billion.

    “I’m grateful to these cutting-edge companies for betting on Michigan, building on our work to compete for and win big projects in next-generation industries from cars and clean energy to semiconductors and batteries,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement.

    Whitmer hailed the deal as “the largest economic project in Michigan history,” saying it will create more than 450 onsite jobs, plus additional spinoff jobs in Washtenaw County. In 2022, General Motors announced a $7 billion investment across two factories, promising 4,000 workers.

    The data center proposal has drawn its fair share of pushback.

    After the Saline Township board voted last month against rezoning the 575-acre site for the data center, Related Digital successfully sued, accusing the township of exclusionary zoning.

    A settlement in that case last week, combined with the DTE deal to provide power, paved the way for Thursday’s public announcement.

    The township’s supervisor and attorney did not immediately respond to messages left by Bridge Michigan on Thursday.

    Township Planning Commissioner Ronald Kohler told Bridge Michigan that he originally voted against the proposal, but has grown more comfortable since developers agreed to invest some $14 million to the local community and make concessions such as on-site groundwater level monitoring wells.

    “I really think once it’s in there, you won’t even know what’s there,” he said. “You can’t live in the horse and buggy days no more.”

    The deal will be eligible for a sales and use tax exemption on equipment, a subsidy approved by the Legislature in late 2024. The companies also will seek a 12-year, 50% local tax abatement, according to the court settlement.

    House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, noted Thursday that he voted against the data center tax breaks that have prompted a wave of interest from the tech industry. He said he’d like to see economic development officials get more upfront buy-in on projects with the potential to reshape communities.

    “The battery plants come in, and the public don’t want them, and we’re starting to see that on the data centers, too,” he said.

    Yet the deal could signal more opportunity for Michigan during a period of rapidly changing technology, said Phil Santer, chief operating officer of Ann Arbor SPARK economic developers.

    After working on the Saline Township project and visiting others in the US, “we’re thinking about where this can go toward an overall AI strategy for the state,” Santer told Bridge. “A data center of this scale in our backyard just adds to our assets.”

    A press release from the three companies stated that the data center campus would occupy 250 acres of the site with three buildings of 550,000 square feet apiece. The campus will use a closed-loop system to cool servers, which company officials claimed will limit the site’s water use “to levels comparable to an office building.”

    “This project will help ensure Michigan is a key part of building the AI infrastructure that will power the next generation of American innovation,” said Peter Hoeschele, an OpenAI vice president .


    Other data center interest

    The announcement comes hours after Michigan’s two largest utilities both announced new progress in the tech industry’s quest to build massive data centers in Michigan, which so far has none of the hyperscale facilities owned by tech giants like OpenAI, Google and Microsoft.

    Providing power to the announced facility will increase DTE’s power demand by roughly 25% — a sharp uptick that company officials plan to fulfill using excess capacity on DTE’s grid, plus a $2 billion battery facility paid for by the developers.

    DTE President and CEO Joi Harris called the news “an exciting milestone” for the company while touting it as an opportunity to create “substantial affordability benefits for existing customers.”

    Beyond the Stargate campus, DTE is in late-stage negotiations for another 3 gigawatts’ worth of data center capacity, Harris said during a Thursday earnings call.

    Officials with Consumers Energy, meanwhile, announced they’re nearing completion of deals for three large data centers amounting to a collective 2 gigawatts of power — about double the near-term demand Consumers projected back in August, when it announced a deal with a single data center developer for up to 1 gigawatt of power.

    Consumers has not shared details about the locations of those proposed data centers or the companies involved. But Microsoft has already announced the purchase of two sites in Allegan and Kent Counties, located in Consumers territory.

    The fast-and-furious dealmaking comes after Michigan lawmakers authorized new tax breaks meant to entice big tech companies to build in Michigan amid a global data center boom.

    Proponents tout the multi-billion-dollar facilities as a way to bring new investment and tax revenue to Michigan. Although the state’s new law exempts eligible data centers from the state’s 6% sales and use tax, local taxes can amount to millions of dollars a year for each facility.

    Opponents, however, fear the facilities will overtax Michigan’s energy grid, raise utility rates and negatively transform the rural farming communities that tend to attract data centers because of their abundance of cheap undeveloped land.

    “How many do we need, and how close together should they be?” asked Regina Kudla, a resident of the Ypsilanti area, where the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory are pursuing a $1.2 billion project.

    Kudla said she is concerned that the facilities’ water and energy use could overtax supplies.


    A deal after others fell apart

    While Whitmer touted the data center announcement, the investment comes after several blows to her administration’s economic development strategy in recent months. They include Sandisk pulling out of a megasite deal near Flint that was estimated to be worth $63 billion, or nine times the cost of the Saline Township project.

    On Tuesday, privately held OpenAI and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) announced another Stargate development in Milwaukee valued at $15 billion and developed by Vantage Data Centers.

    The massive hyperscale data centers built by the likes of Google, Meta and Microsoft tend to occupy hundreds of acres apiece, gobbling up as much energy as a midsized or even large city. Depending how costs are apportioned for that new demand, it could bring affordability for everyone by spreading the cost of maintaining poles, wires and power plants among more customers, or it could raise rates if data center developers aren’t made to pay for the potential billions of dollars’ worth of investments needed to connect them to the grid.

    Utilities are balancing excitement about the money to be made expanding their business with concerns that the predicted data center boom could fail to materialize, leaving ratepayers holding the bill for that infrastructure build-out.

    In a rate case filed with state energy regulators, Consumers has proposed establishing special rules that would require data center operators to sign 15-year contracts that guarantee consistent electricity use and impose steep exit fees on data center operators that downsize or cease operations mid-contract.

    The goal, Consumers Director of Cost and Pricing Laura Connolly said in a regulatory filing, is to ensure that massive investments meant to accommodate data centers don’t wind up raising rates for everyday power customers.

    Beyond questions about costs, environmentalists are worried utilities will falter in their efforts to get off fossil fuels as data centers prompt a rapid increase in power usage.

    Indeed, both DTE and Consumers say their long-term plans to absorb data center load involve building new fossil fuel power plants.

    Consumers Energy President and CEO Garrick Rochow said Thursday that the utility will file a long-term power plan with state regulators next year detailing plans for “both battery capacity and natural gas capacity.”

    “The more we add, in terms of data centers, that will continue to grow,” Rochow said.

    DTE officials, meanwhile, announced Thursday that they intend to build a gas plant in the coming years to offset lost power generation from the Monroe coal plant slated to go offline in 2032.

    But both utilities contend they can make those fossil fuel investments while still complying with the state’s climate law, which requires them to achieve 100% clean energy by 2040. The law counts natural gas plants equipped with carbon capture and storage technology as an acceptable form of clean energy.

    Environmental groups dislike that strategy.

    To qualify for state tax credits, data centers must procure clean energy covering 90% of their needs. But Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer with the Michigan Environmental Council, said her group is pushing for clean power commitments to be included directly in the contracts utilities sign with data center developers.

    As for the plans to build new gas plants, Jameson said, “that’s definitely something that we’re going to be pushing back against.”

    This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • AP Decision Notes: What to Expect in Detroit on Election Day

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    DETROIT (AP) — Detroit voters will choose a new mayor Tuesday in the city’s first open-seat mayoral race in a dozen years.

    City Council President Mary Sheffield and Triumph Church pastor Solomon Kinloch, both Democrats, will face off for the city’s top job after placing first and second in the Aug. 5 nonpartisan primary. The winner will replace outgoing three-term Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor of Michigan as an independent.

    Still, the next mayor will face numerous challenges, including a shortage of affordable housing and vast economic disparities along racial lines.

    Sheffield has led the field in fundraising throughout the campaign. As of the August primary, her campaign fund more than doubled that of her eight competitors combined.

    In the general election, she has far outraised and outspent Kinloch. As of Oct. 19, her campaign had spent more than $1.8 million on her campaign and had roughly $772,000 in the bank. By that same point, Kinloch had spent about $160,000 on the race and had less than $11,000 remaining in the bank.

    Since receiving more than 50% of the vote in the August primary, Sheffield has picked up key endorsements from Duggan, as well as from two of her former primary opponents, former city council president Saunteel Jenkins and city council member Fred Durhal. Jenkins received 16% of the primary vote, narrowly losing a spot on the general election ballot to Kinloch, who received about 17%. Durhal received about 3% of the vote.

    The Detroit electorate is overwhelmingly Democratic. In the 2024 presidential election, voters in the city supported Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump by about a 9-1 ratio.

    At a September rally in Howell, Michigan, Vice President JD Vance sent a public message to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that the administration is “happy” to send the National Guard to Detroit. “All you gotta do is ask,” he said.

    The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

    Michigan’s mandatory recount law does not apply to Detroit’s mayoral race. Instead, candidates may request and pay for a recount, with the payment refunded if the recount changes the outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

    Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:

    Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

    The AP will provide vote results and declare the winner in Detroit’s mayoral race.

    Any voter registered in Detroit may participate in the mayoral general election.


    What do turnout and advance vote look like?

    There were more than 518,000 registered voters in Detroit as of the August mayoral primary.

    Turnout in that primary was about 17% of registered voters. About 32% of mayoral primary voters cast their ballots in person, while the remaining 68% voted early in person or by absentee ballot.

    Turnout in the 2021 mayoral general election was about 19% of registered voters, with about 67% of voters casting early or absentee ballots.

    As of Monday, nearly 45,000 ballots had been cast in Detroit before Election Day.


    How long does vote counting usually take?

    In the August primary, the AP first reported results at 8:32 p.m. ET, or 32 minutes after polls closed. The vote tabulation ended for the night at 4:30 a.m. ET, with 100% of votes counted.

    As of Tuesday, there will be 364 days until the 2026 midterm elections and 1,099 days until the 2028 general election.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Appeals Court Backs Michigan School in Banning ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Shirts

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    SAND LAKE, Mich. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Michigan school district in a dispute over free speech and “Let’s Go Brandon” shirts, clothing that took a jab at then-President Joe Biden.

    The mother of two boys, who got the shirts as Christmas gifts, said her sons’ First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the shirts at Tri County Middle School in 2022. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in 2-1 opinion.

    “In the schoolhouse, vulgarity trumps politics. And the protection for political speech doesn’t give a student carte blanche to use vulgarity at school — even when that vulgarity is cloaked in innuendo or euphemism,” said judges John Nalbandian and Karen Nelson Moore.

    In 2021, an obscenity directed at Biden was being chanted at a NASCAR race, though a TV sports reporter said it was “Let’s Go, Brandon.” The line suddenly became popular among Biden’s conservative critics.

    The school said it wasn’t prohibiting political messages, just vulgar ones. There was evidence that some students wore clothing that said, “Make America Great Again,” or had messages supporting President Donald Trump.

    Judge John Bush disagreed with the majority opinion and said the wrong legal standard was applied.

    “The phrase at issue here is a euphemism for political criticism. It contains no sexual content, no graphic imagery, and no actual profanity,” he said. “To the extent that it implies an offensive phrase, it does so obliquely — by design.”

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  • Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Tireless Advocate for Detroit, Dies at Age 80

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    DETROIT (AP) — Former Detroit Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick has died at age 80, according to her family.

    The family announced Cheeks Kilpatrick’s death Wednesday in a statement, calling her a “tireless warrior” for Detroit and an “unwavering champion for her constituents.”

    “For over 32 years, Congresswoman Kilpatrick held elected office with passion, integrity, and an unyielding commitment to bringing positive change to our community,” the family said. “She will be deeply missed, not only by her family and friends, but by the entire Detroit community that she loved so dearly.”

    A Democrat, Cheeks Kilpatrick became the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. House following her election in 1996. By her second term, she was assigned to the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where she worked to secure federal resources for Detroit, according to a biography on the U.S. House website.

    She was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and served as its chair from 2007-2009.

    A former school teacher, Cheeks Kilpatrick first was elected in 1978 to the Michigan House of Representatives, where she served nine consecutive terms.

    In 2008, her son, then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in a civil trial involving retaliation against police officers. He later resigned as mayor.

    Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted in 2013 of federal racketeering, fraud, extortion and tax crimes and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was released in 2021 after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence.

    “Congresswoman Kilpatrick leaves behind a legacy of service that shines as an example to all who knew her,” the Congressional Black Caucus said Wednesday in a statement.

    In addition to her son, Cheeks Kilpatrick is survived by a daughter, Ayanna, and eight grandchildren.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Scary Season: Performers at Michigan Haunted House Learn Tricks of the Terrifying Trade

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    PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Grotesque makeup, menacing props and intimidating costumes are just one part of a Michigan haunted house’s 25-year-old formula to terrify guests.

    It starts by educating the actors looking to provide the most horrifying experience to its visitors. At Scare School, they learn all the tricks of the trade.

    Lessons begin weeks before the four-level walk-through scream factory opens to visitors, introducing fresh talent to the get-ups, face paint and unnatural body movements proven to petrify thousands of customers since the turn of the century.

    The actors’ report card of sorts is the “Wimp Out Score Board” in Erebus Haunted Attraction’s ground-level lobby, tallying the numbers of visitors who flee before making it through all four levels or who join the “wetters, pukers & fainters” total.

    And, yes, they really tally it.

    The one-time abandoned parking structure in Pontiac consistently lands on lists of the scariest haunted houses in America. Operations managers and brothers Zac and Brad Terebus said the coaching and training performers receive isn’t just about what they wear or how loud they can shout.

    “Scare School really comes down to the psychology of fear,” Zac Terebus said. “Fear is not an accident. Fear is an art.”

    In the weeks before Erebus opened for the Sept. 19-Nov. 2 Halloween season, managers auditioned and hired dozens of scare actors, then coached them to be as frightening as humanly — or rather, supernaturally — possible.

    In an upstairs room in early September, Erebus veterans schooled the newbies on the finer points of zombie shuffling and demon shrieking, walking on stilts and wielding a spiked (plastic) club. The new hires also learned about make-up application, costuming, how to get into their roles and personas as well as rules about interacting with the guests.

    It’s all part of an effort to bring out their inner fiend, Brad Terebus said.

    “Let’s say they’re a lawyer by day,” he said. “They can come here, break their shell off and just release this monster within them.”

    Alan Tucker, who portrays a bloodthirsty clown, said scare acting is “therapeutic.”

    “You never really think that you can be something else for a couple hours and scare people. But then when you really actually get to do that, it’s so entertaining. It’s so fulfilling,” said Tucker, who is in his second year as a scare actor.

    Renee Piehl is in her third year, this time around playing Nyx, based on the Greek goddess of night, who frightens guests waiting in line to enter the haunt.

    “They come here to be scared. It’s Halloween. It’s fun,” she said. “We are to be ugly and scary and bloody.”

    Plus, the scarier the actors are, the bigger the numbers will get on the Wimp Out Score Board.

    The board currently lists 10,711 “wimps” and 1,246 “wetters, pukers & fainters” both cumulative totals since the Terebuses’ father and uncle opened the attraction.

    “What we have throughout the haunted house, we call them ‘chicken exits.’ They’re actually fire exits,” Zac Terebus said. “But, at any point in the show, if you say, ‘I want out,’ we take you out, we escort you down, you end up here in the exit lobby, you can wait for your group to come on out.

    “It’s a competition among our monsters to see who can really scare the pee out of somebody.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Woman Who Was Confronted by Michigan Church Gunman Says She Instantly Forgave Him for Killing Dad

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    A woman who was inside a Michigan church when her father and three other people were killed says she and the gunman locked eyes during the chaos and she was able to look into his soul, seeing his pain and a feeling of being lost. She said she instantly forgave him “with my heart.”

    “He let me live,” Lisa Louis, 45, wrote.

    A photo of a handwritten statement that Louis wrote was posted on Facebook. She described how she encountered the shooter and she also made a plea to the public for peace.

    “Fear breeds anger, anger breeds hate, hate breeds suffering,” Louis wrote. “If we can stop the hate we can stop the suffering. But stopping the hate takes all of us.”

    Thomas “Jake” Sanford, 40, rammed his pickup truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township, near Flint, on Sunday, shot at the congregation and destroyed the building with fire, police said. Police killed him at the scene.

    Friends said Sanford had expressed hatred toward the Mormon church, as it is commonly known, after living in Utah and returning to Michigan years ago. Utah is the home state of the church.

    Louis said she was kneeling next to her mortally wounded father, Craig Hayden, 72, when Sanford approached and asked a question.

    “I never took my eyes off his eyes, something happened, I saw pain, he felt lost,” Louis wrote. “I deeply felt it with every fiber of my being. I forgave him, I forgave him right there, not in words, but with my heart.”

    She also wrote: “I saw into his soul and he saw into mine. He let me live.”

    Louis declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press. Her brother-in-law, Terry Green, wrote on Facebook that he believes her interactions with the gunman “bought precious time for others to escape.”

    Besides Hayden, William “Pat” Howard and John Bond also were killed. The shooter’s fourth victim has not been publicly identified. Eight people were wounded.

    Meanwhile, a different church said Wednesday that Sanford tried to have his 10-year-old son baptized there on Sept. 21 and was upset when he was turned down.

    Sanford did not threaten staff at The River Church in Goodrich, but he was “frustrated,” Caleb Combs, an elder, told the AP. “You could see his agitation. … He wanted it done.”

    Church staff tried to get a grasp of the boy’s belief in Jesus Christ but “came to the conclusion their son was unable to understand what he was doing,” Combs said.

    Sanford and his wife did not regularly attend the church, Combs said, but had held an event there 10 years ago to raise money for the boy’s medical care. He was born with a health condition that produced abnormally high levels of insulin.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • St. Thérèse’s Relics Begin Tour of US With Stop at Michigan Parish Named for Beloved French Nun

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    ROYAL OAK, Mich. (AP) — The sacred bones of a much-loved French Carmelite nun began a tour of the U.S. on Wednesday at a suburban Detroit parish named in her honor.

    Nicole Scheier was among those who arrived hours ahead of the first opportunity to catch a glimpse of the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

    “St. Thérèse is a saint for everybody. She is relatable. She teaches that sainthood is attainable, doing small things with great love,” Scheier said after pausing before a statue of St. Thérèse outside the National Shrine of The Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak, Michigan.

    A reliquary containing some of St. Thérèse’s remains will be on display through Oct. 8, before moving on to California. Other stops on the tour, which runs into December, are Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

    Haifa Gabbara also arrived at the basilica well in advance.

    “St. Thérèse means a lot to me and to my family,” the West Bloomfield Township resident said. “So, I was determined to be here, although early.”

    The National Shrine was founded in 1926, as one of the nation’s first parishes dedicated to the memory of the saint born Thérèse Martin and who died of tuberculosis in 1897 at age 24.

    Nicknamed “The Little Flower of Jesus,” St. Thérèse became known worldwide for her autobiography, “Story of a Soul,” that described her devotion to God. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925. Mother Teresa took her name and said she was inspired to serve the poor in India.

    St. Thérèse’s relics also came from France to the U.S. in 1999. Tens of thousands visited Royal Oak that year during a one-day stay. Now, a quarter-century later, they are back on The Little Flower’s feast day.

    “It feels like Christmas morning that a wonderful gift from God is coming here to be with us,” said the Rev. John Bettin, rector of the National Shrine of The Little Flower Basilica.

    In the Catholic tradition, a relic is an object, notably part of the body or clothes, that serves as a memorial of a departed saint. It is an ancient tradition within the church to venerate, or honor, the relics of holy people.

    Those who wish to venerate the relics are to slowly make their way inside the basilica, where they will find the reliquary positioned in a central area. They are permitted to touch the reliquary with medals, rosaries and prayer cards, but they may not lean on nor kiss the glass.

    “We do have to protect the reliquary and the relics,” Bettin said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Man Who Attacked Michigan Church Became ‘Unhinged’ When Talking About Mormon Faith

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    DETROIT (AP) — The man who shot up a Michigan church and set a fire that killed four people was a former U.S. Marine who expressed animosity about the Mormon faith to a city council candidate knocking on doors just days before the attack.

    Thomas Sanford, who was known as Jake, drove a pickup truck with a deer skull and antlers strapped to the front and two large American flags flapping in the wind in the bed, according to friends and social media posts.

    Sanford, 40, smashed that truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township. He was killed by police officers who rushed to the scene Sunday, 60 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. The building was destroyed.

    Kris Johns, a council candidate in Burton, said he met Sanford while introducing himself to voters last week. He told MLive.com that Sanford was pleasant but became “unhinged” when he suddenly began talking about the Mormon church, as it is widely known.

    It’s not known what ties, if any, Sanford had to the church. But Johns said Sanford indicated that some members wanted him to get rid of his tattoos. He also talked about “sealing,” the Mormon temple ceremony of joining a man, a woman and their children together for eternity.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” said the FBI was learning that Sanford “hated people of the Mormon faith.”

    Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton said his office wrote warrants to search Sanford’s vehicles, home and electronic devices to try to discover his motives.

    “All this takes time,” he told The Associated Press.

    Coincidentally, Sanford and his family lived next to a church, Eastgate Baptist, in Burton. Pastor Jerome Taylor said he mostly talked to Sanford about fallen trees on church property that his neighbor wanted to cut and sell as firewood.

    “He had free rein,” said Taylor, who described Sanford as a “general blue-collar person in our neighborhood.”

    “The knowledge that there was a threat, a danger, across our property line so heinous — it’s a little bit mind-warping,” he said, adding that Sanford never attended Eastgate Baptist.

    A family friend, Kara Pattison, said she saw Sanford on Friday, two days before the shooting. She and her daughter were walking in the street at the Goodrich High School homecoming parade and became startled when the driver of a pickup truck hit the gas pedal hard.

    When the window was rolled down, it was Sanford “laughing,” Pattison said.

    “How do you mourn the death of someone who did something so terrible?” Pattison told WDIV-TV, referring to the church attack.

    After high school, Sanford served in the Marines from 2004 to 2008, including seven months in Iraq, focusing on vehicle operations and maintenance, records show. He was discharged at the rank of sergeant.

    Under Michigan law, police, family or health professionals can ask a judge to take guns away from someone for reasons that include mental health. There were no petitions filed against Sanford, court administrator Barbara Menear said.

    In 2015, Sanford’s baby son received groundbreaking treatment at a Fort Worth, Texas, hospital for a condition called “hyperinsulinism,” or abnormally high levels of insulin. The boy’s stay at Cook Children’s Health Care System lasted for weeks and was promoted by the hospital in a news release.

    Sanford told the hospital that a doctor’s willingness to help his son was a “sign from heaven.”

    “We put our faith to the wind and it took us to Texas,” he said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • A List of Notable Shooting Attacks on Houses of Worship in the US in the Past 20 Years

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    A gunman opened fire inside a Michigan church during Sunday services, inflicting casualties after ramming his vehicle into the front door of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.

    It was the latest of many shooting attacks on houses of worship in the U.S. over the past 20 years. Here’s a list of some of the most notable attacks.

    August 27, 2025: Two children were killed and several others were injured in a shooting that happened during Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis. The shooter, who authorities say died of a self-inflicted gunshot, was a former student at the parish’s school.

    June 16, 2022: A gunman opened fire at a potluck dinner at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, killing three people. He was stopped from doing further damage when another diner struck him with a folding chair and held him until the police arrived.

    Oct. 27, 2018: Eleven Jews attending services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh were fatally shot by a white supremacist with a history of antisemitism. The gunman, Robert Bowers, faces execution after his conviction on multiple federal charges.

    Nov. 5, 2017: A family feud is believed to have prompted the deadliest mass shooting in modern Texas history. Twenty-five people, including a pregnant woman, were killed at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

    Sept. 24, 2017: A gunman opened fire at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee, killing one person and injuring several others, including the minister. The shooter, who previously attended the church, was sentenced to life without parole in 2019.

    June 17, 2015: A young man walked into a Bible study session at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. and killed nine people. The victims included the senior pastor, Clementa Pinckney. The shooter, Dylann Roof, was an avowed white supremacist; he is awaiting execution after his conviction on multiple federal charges.

    August 5, 2012: Six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in the town of Oak Creek were shot to death by a 41-year-old white supremacist who had discussed a racial holy war. One of the injured victims died in 2020 from his head wound, becoming the seventh fatality.

    July 27, 2008: A gunman fired a sawed-off shotgun during a children’s performance at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, killing two people and wounding several others. Police said the shooter targeted the church because of its liberal leanings.

    Dec. 9, 2007: A man killed two people and wounded three at Colorado Springs’ New Life Church before taking his own life. Earlier the same day, he killed two people and injured two at a Youth With a Mission Center in the Denver suburb of Arvada.

    March 12, 2005: Terry Michael Ratzmann killed seven fellow congregants at the Living Church of God in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb. He killed himself after the shooting. Prosecutors never determined an exact motive, although they said he blamed the church for his depression and financial problems.

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • 2 kids killed, 15 injured after vehicle crashes into birthday party, Michigan sheriff says

    2 kids killed, 15 injured after vehicle crashes into birthday party, Michigan sheriff says

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    BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A young brother and sister died and several people were injured, some of them seriously, when a vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver crashed into a young child’s birthday party Saturday at a boat club, a Michigan sheriff said.

    An 8-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother died at the scene in the crash, when a 66-year-old woman crashed 25 feet into the building about 3 p.m. at the Swan Creek Boat Club in Berlin Township, about 30 miles south of Detroit, Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough said.

    “The scene was described by the first responders as extremely chaotic, with high level of emotions of those directly involved and those who witnessed this horrific incident,” he said.

    Three children and six adults were taken to area hospitals by two helicopters or ambulances, some with life-threatening injuries, he said. Others injured were given first aid at the scene, and some of them were taken to hospitals by private vehicles.

    Goodnough did not identify the woman driving the vehicle but said she was taken into custody to the Monroe County Jail suspected of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing death.

    She was cooperating with authorities, he said, and likely would face more charges as the investigation continues.

    This is a breaking news story. Updates will be added here as more information becomes available.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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