Latest news with #Detroit-area
Black America Web
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Judge Mathis Says Kanye West's Presence At Diddy's Trial 'Creates Drama'
Source: Judge Greg Mathis has been a TV judge for most of his career, but he's been giving his legal opinion as the weeks wane on in Diddy's sex trafficking trial. However, in a recent interview with TMZ, he took off his attorney hat and focused more on the press surrounding the high-profile case, specifically Kanye West, who appeared at the courthouse last week to support him. 'I think it creates drama,' Mathis said concerning Ye's presence. 'More drama than we've seen already. So that's my assessment. I'm not sure whether that was intentional or to create drama, or whether he's there to comfort or support a friend, which I think is fine.' Aside from Ye, Mathis also touched on those family and friends closest to Diddy who have been criticized for publicly defending him, including his kids, who have sat in for most of the court days as his alleged victims recount their abuse. Mathis says that public support is admirable, but behind closed doors, they should be honest with him about all the alleged mistakes he's made and criticize him. 'You should be there for your friend to comfort him. Even though he has done wrong,' he added. 'He's done some heinous crimes, assaults against these women. But if I were a family member, I would be there to comfort him, not defend him, not stick up for, what he's done. I would condemn him in private and support him in public.' Just a few weeks ago, the no-nonsense former Detroit-area district court judge spoke about the case on The Mathis Verdict podcast, which he shares with his son Amir, to focus on the legal proceedings. He says that based on the testimony and videos he's seen, he thinks he was involved in at least two cases of assault and battery against women, and also was somehow connected to the bombing of Kid Cudi's car. 'If you want to sum it up, if it were a state crime that Judge Mathis has observed testimony and evidence and transcripts, what would I give him? Five to 10 [years],' he said. See the latest reactions to Diddy's high-profile case below. SEE ALSO Judge Mathis Says Kanye West's Presence At Diddy's Trial 'Creates Drama' was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Axios
17-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Home prices edge up in Detroit area
Detroit-area home prices climbed 2.6% in April from a year earlier, according to Redfin data. The big picture: 12 of the 50 largest metros saw prices dip compared to a year ago, per the real estate site.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Got a gripe? Here's how to reach your Michigan members of Congress
Got a question or a gripe for someone in Congress, or Michigan? Here's how you can get in touch with someone. Just in case you've forgotten your high school civics lessons (or maybe never had them), here's the lowdown: Every person living in any state has effectively three people representing him or her in Congress, two in the U.S. Senate, who represent everyone in that state and are elected to staggered six-year terms, and one member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who represents a smaller geographical area in each state and is elected to two-year terms. In Michigan, you're represented in Congress by U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin and one of 13 members of the U.S. House of Representatives (who are often referred to as congressmen or congresswomen, even though Congress really encompasses both the Senate and the House). The easiest way is online. For Peters, go here and there's a link for "contact" at the top. From there you can link to forms to get help with a federal agency or to share your thoughts with the senator's staff. The latter also includes additional links to sign up to tour a federal building in Washington like the Capitol or the White House. There is also a link to try to schedule a meeting with the senator. Make sure to note if you want a response from the senator's staff and hit submit. For Slotkin, it's pretty much the same, just start here and go to "contact" at the top. She also has links from there not just for help with an agency or questions but for whistleblowers (people who spot potential wrongdoing by federal agencies) to file complaints. Both senators also have addresses and phone numbers for their offices around Michigan and in Washington at the bottom of their websites and contact pages. If you want to go the old school way, you can call Peters' office in Detroit at (313) 226-6020 or toll-free at (844) 506-7420 or his office in Washington at (202) 224-6221. You can also send him correspondence at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building, 477 Michigan Ave., Suite 1837, Detroit, MI 48226 or at the Hart Senate Office Building, Suite 724, Washington, D.C. 20510. For Slotkin, the Detroit-area phone is (313) 961-4330 and the Washington line is (202) 224-4822. Her address in Detroit is 719 Griswold Street, Suite 700, Detroit, MI 48226 and in Washington it's 291 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510. By the way, if you want a list of all the senators nationwide and their contact information, you can find it at and follow the links from there. It's a little more complicated since there are currently 13 U.S. House districts (or seats) representing Michigan and you first have to figure out who your House member is. That's still pretty easy online, if you go here and type in your ZIP code. For instance, type in 49862 for Munising, and you get U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman. Type in 48650 for Pinconning and it might be either Bergman or U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (it will ask for your street address to determine which one). From there, you can follow the links to contact your member of Congress, make a tour request, etc. More: Trump signs measure to block California car standards, says it will 'rescue' automakers If you're not online, it's a little more difficult finding out who your member of Congress is, though you can always call your local city or township clerk's office, or drop in and ask. And while we can't give you a specific answer as to who represents you (since it's based on where you live and we don't know that), here's a rough outline of each of the state's 13 U.S. House districts, who currently represents each and the address, email and phone for a couple of their main offices: U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman Traverse City: 1396 Douglas Drive, Suite 22B, Traverse City, MI 49696 T: (231) 944-7633 Washington: 566 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-4735 U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar Caledonia: 8980 North Rodgers Court, Suite H, Caledonia, MI 49316 T: (616) 528-7100 Washington: 246 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-3561 U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten Grand Rapids: 110 Michigan St. NW, Suite 460, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 T: (616) 451-8383 Washington: 1317 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-3831 More: Trump has kind words for Slotkin, UAW's Fain, though without mentioning them by name U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga Holland: 170 College Ave., Suite 160, Holland, MI 49423 T: (616) 251-6741 Washington: 2232 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-4401 U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg Jackson: 401 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson, MI 49201 T: (517) 780-9075 Washington: 2266 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 T: (202) 225-6276 U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell Ann Arbor: 2006 Hogback Rd., Suite 7, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 T: (734) 481-1100 Washington: 102 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-4071 U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett Lansing: 328 W Ottawa St., Suite A, Lansing, MI 48933 T: (517) 993-0510 Washington: 1232 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-4872 U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet Flint: 601 Saginaw St., Suite 403, Flint, MI 48502 T: (810) 238-8627 Washington: 1408 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-3611 U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain Lake Orion: 30 N Broadway St., Lake Orion, MI 48362 T: (586) 697-9300 Washington: 562 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-2106 U.S. Rep. John James Warren: 30500 Van Dyke Ave., Suite 306, Warren, MI 48093 T: (586) 498-7122 Washington: 1519 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-4961 U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens Farmington Hills: 30500 Northwestern Hwy, Suite 525, Farmington Hills, MI 48334 T: (734) 853-3040 Washington: 2411 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-8171 U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib Detroit: 7800 W. Outer Dr., Detroit, MI 48235 T: (313) 463-6220 Washington: 2438 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-5126 U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar Detroit: 400 Monroe St., Suite 420, Detroit, MI 48226 T: (313) 880-2400 Washington: 154 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 T: (202) 225-5802 Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@ Follow him on X @tsspangler. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How to reach your Michigan members of Congress
Politico
12-06-2025
- Automotive
- Politico
GM slow-rolls its all-EV aspirations
General Motors quietly closed the door this week on a goal to make only electric vehicles by 2035. The automaker announced Tuesday that it would spend $4 billion on mostly gasoline-powered vehicles. While GM is not retreating from EVs, the investment means the company is 'giving up any hope of achieving that [2035] goal,' said Sam Abuelsamid, an auto analyst at Telemetry, a Detroit-area research firm. Asked Wednesday whether the goal still exists, GM said in a statement, 'We still believe in an all-EV future.' GM's move away from the 2035 goal is less a singular failure and more a symptom of flagging support among many actors, including government, other automakers, charging companies and car buyers, analysts said. Much has changed since GM set the EV target, just after President Joe Biden took office and amid a surge of confidence in the auto industry about widespread EV adoption. Four years later, the Trump administration is dismantling Biden-era federal support for EVs and implementing high tariffs, upsetting automakers' production plans. Those federal moves, combined with a cooling desire for EVs among car buyers, has moved the sunset date for the internal combustion engine to a vague someday. GM is still ramping up EV production. Earlier this week, it trumpeted the fact that it sold 37,000 EVs in the first quarter of the year, making it the number two EV maker in the U.S. behind Tesla. The company's 2035 goal 'was aspirational. It was more an idea than a strategy,' said Alan Baum, an independent Detroit auto analyst. 'GM's doing a better job than many of their competitors, but there's obviously a relatively low ceiling because of the lack of supportive policy.' GM's all-EV goal back in 2021 was one of the earliest and most prominent of a wave of automaker commitments to electric vehicles. At the time, GM CEO Mary Barra encouraged others to 'follow suit and make a significant impact on our industry and on the economy as a whole.' Others did follow — and all of those promises have been tempered by new realities. Last year, European automakers Volvo, Porsche, Volkswagen and Mercedes all dropped earlier goals that would have seen them producing all or mostly EVs by the early 2030s. Back in 2021, GM also put an asterisk on its 2035 target. 'We say it as an aspirational goal, because to actually make that timing, we need some external things to come together also,' spokesperson Jessica James said at the time. Barra reiterated last month that the company still wants an 'all-EV future.' 'EVs are fundamentally better,' she said at a Wall Street Journal event late last month. 'We have work to do to continue to get battery technology to give us greater density, so we have farther range. We need to have a robust charging infrastructure.' Automakers, including GM, have been mostly mum in public as the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress seek to kill tax incentives that make it cheaper for manufacturers to produce batteries and consumers to buy EVs. But through the main U.S. automotive lobby, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, automakers have vociferously opposed California's plans to require all-electric auto sales by 2035. The Republican-controlled Congress voted to kill that California 2035 all-EV sales goal — the same one that GM first set for itself — through the Congressional Review Act. The move came after the Senate parliamentarian told lawmakers they couldn't repeal the goal through the CRA. The bill awaits a signature by Trump, after which the California attorney general has pledged to sue. GM's announcement that it would invest $4 billion in domestic manufacturing essentially shuffles production among factories in ways that will help the company dodge Trump's tariffs. It is moving production of about a half-million gasoline-powered vehicles from Mexico to factories in the U.S., according to an analysis by Abuelsamid of Telemetry. Doing so will enable GM to avoid 25 percent tariffs that the Trump administration has placed on vehicles imported from Mexico. For example, the production of several full-size SUVs and pickup trucks will transfer to GM's Orion plant, north of Detroit. The gas-powered Equinox, a strong U.S. seller, will move to the Fairfax plant in Kansas City. The gas-running Blazer will go to the company's Spring Hill plant in Tennessee. Meanwhile, more EV production will move to GM's Factory Zero, a dedicated EV plant in metro Detroit that is running far below capacity. Electric versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks will now get made in the plant, alongside other large EVs made in low volumes, including the Cadillac Escalade IQ and the Hummer. Other EVs will be made elsewhere. Other electric Cadillacs, for example, will be made at the Spring Hill plant, while a rebooted version of the Chevy Bolt will be produced at the Fairfax plant, which the company described as the site for the 'next generation of affordable EVs.' Those changes, combined with other recent moves, make it clear that GM is laying the groundwork to produce gas-powered vehicles well into the 2030s. In May, the Detroit automaker said it would ditch plans to make electric motors at its Towanda Production plant in Buffalo, New York, and instead spend $888 million to make V-8 engines. In 2023, GM put $579 million toward refurbishing an engine plant in Flint, Michigan. Electric vehicles don't have engines — they rely instead on batteries for propulsion. Engine factories are large, fixed investments that are meant to operate for 15 years or more, according to Neal Ganguli, a managing director and auto-manufacturing expert at the business advisory firm AlixPartners. Meanwhile, the manufacturing lines that make finished cars — like the ones GM unveiled this week — have shorter but still lengthy lives. 'When you put these [manufacturing lines] in, you are planning on a five- to seven-year time horizon,' Ganguli said. 'Maybe 10 years.' Analysts said General Motors' swerve back into the gasoline lane — and away from the path to all EVs by 2035 — is not a surprise, given the market and policy realities. 'It was always a long shot at best,' said Abuelsamid.
E&E News
12-06-2025
- Automotive
- E&E News
GM slow-rolls its all-EV aspirations
General Motors quietly closed the door this week on a goal to make only electric vehicles by 2035. The automaker announced Tuesday that it would spend $4 billion on mostly gasoline-powered vehicles. While GM is not retreating from EVs, the investment means the company is 'giving up any hope of achieving that [2035] goal,' said Sam Abuelsamid, an auto analyst at Telemetry, a Detroit-area research firm. Asked Wednesday whether the goal still exists, GM said in a statement, 'We still believe in an all-EV future.' Advertisement GM's move away from the 2035 goal is less a singular failure and more a symptom of flagging support among many actors, including government, other automakers, charging companies and car buyers, analysts said. Much has changed since GM set the EV target, just after President Joe Biden took office and amid a surge of confidence in the auto industry about widespread EV adoption. Four years later, the Trump administration is dismantling Biden-era federal support for EVs and implementing high tariffs, upsetting automakers' production plans. Those federal moves, combined with a cooling desire for EVs among car buyers, has moved the sunset date for the internal combustion engine to a vague someday. GM is still ramping up EV production. Earlier this week, it trumpeted the fact that it sold 37,000 EVs in the first quarter of the year, making it the number two EV maker in the U.S. behind Tesla. The company's 2035 goal 'was aspirational. It was more an idea than a strategy,' said Alan Baum, an independent Detroit auto analyst. 'GM's doing a better job than many of their competitors, but there's obviously a relatively low ceiling because of the lack of supportive policy.' GM's all-EV goal back in 2021 was one of the earliest and most prominent of a wave of automaker commitments to electric vehicles. At the time, GM CEO Mary Barra encouraged others to 'follow suit and make a significant impact on our industry and on the economy as a whole.' Others did follow — and all of those promises have been tempered by new realities. Last year, European automakers Volvo, Porsche, Volkswagen and Mercedes all dropped earlier goals that would have seen them producing all or mostly EVs by the early 2030s. Back in 2021, GM also put an asterisk on its 2035 target. 'We say it as an aspirational goal, because to actually make that timing, we need some external things to come together also,' spokesperson Jessica James said at the time. Barra reiterated last month that the company still wants an 'all-EV future.' 'EVs are fundamentally better,' she said at a Wall Street Journal event late last month. 'We have work to do to continue to get battery technology to give us greater density, so we have farther range. We need to have a robust charging infrastructure.' Automakers, including GM, have been mostly mum in public as the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress seek to kill tax incentives that make it cheaper for manufacturers to produce batteries and consumers to buy EVs. But through the main U.S. automotive lobby, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, automakers have vociferously opposed California's plans to require all-electric auto sales by 2035. The Republican-controlled Congress voted to kill that California 2035 all-EV sales goal — the same one that GM first set for itself — through the Congressional Review Act. The move came after the Senate parliamentarian told lawmakers they couldn't repeal the goal through the CRA. The bill awaits a signature by Trump, after which the California attorney general has pledged to sue. What GM is doing GM's announcement that it would invest $4 billion in domestic manufacturing essentially shuffles production among factories in ways that will help the company dodge Trump's tariffs. It is moving production of about a half-million gasoline-powered vehicles from Mexico to factories in the U.S., according to an analysis by Abuelsamid of Telemetry. Doing so will enable GM to avoid 25 percent tariffs that the Trump administration has placed on vehicles imported from Mexico. For example, the production of several full-size SUVs and pickup trucks will transfer to GM's Orion plant, north of Detroit. The gas-powered Equinox, a strong U.S. seller, will move to the Fairfax plant in Kansas City. The gas-running Blazer will go to the company's Spring Hill plant in Tennessee. Meanwhile, more EV production will move to GM's Factory Zero, a dedicated EV plant in metro Detroit that is running far below capacity. Electric versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks will now get made in the plant, alongside other large EVs made in low volumes, including the Cadillac Escalade IQ and the Hummer. Other EVs will be made elsewhere. Other electric Cadillacs, for example, will be made at the Spring Hill plant, while a rebooted version of the Chevy Volt will be produced at the Fairfax plant, which the company described as the site for the 'next generation of affordable EVs.' Those changes, combined with other recent moves, make it clear that GM is laying the groundwork to produce gas-powered vehicles well into the 2030s. In May, the Detroit automaker said it would ditch plans to make electric motors at its Towanda Production plant in Buffalo, New York, and instead spend $888 million to make V-8 engines. In 2023, GM put $579 million toward refurbishing an engine plant in Flint, Michigan. Electric vehicles don't have engines — they rely instead on batteries for propulsion. Engine factories are large, fixed investments that are meant to operate for 15 years or more, according to Neal Ganguli, a managing director and auto-manufacturing expert at the business advisory firm AlixPartners. Meanwhile, the manufacturing lines that make finished cars — like the ones GM unveiled this week — have shorter but still lengthy lives. 'When you put these [manufacturing lines] in, you are planning on a five- to seven-year time horizon,' Ganguli said. 'Maybe 10 years.' Analysts said General Motors' swerve back into the gasoline lane — and away from the path to all EVs by 2035 — is not a surprise, given the market and policy realities. 'It was always a long shot at best,' said Abuelsamid.
