Sven Gustafson - Daily Detroit (Page 9)

WATCH: Detroit Rapper Gmac Cash Drops New Anti-Winter Screed, 'Snow.' Can You Say, 'Grammy Snub'?

Detroit humor-rapper Gmac Cash has dropped a new song titled “Snow,” giving voice to what everyone here is feeling right now about our wintry mix here in the dregs of February. Filmed in a snowy driveway in front of what appears to be an early aughts-model Pontiac Grand Am GT, a fur coat- and beanie-wearing Cash verbalizes what we’re all thinking right now: “Man, I’m gettin’ tired of all this f***in’ snow!” There’s also security-camera footage of someone named Meek slipping and falling o...

The State Of Our State's Transportation, Plus 4 Things To Know

On today’s pod, we cover a bunch of transportation-related news. First up: Rivian, the electric vehicle startup we’ve covered in a Detroit Public Television segment and on this pod, may get a big investment from Amazon and General Motors. We discuss how that could be a huge boost for the company as it eyes the launch of its first vehicle in fall 2020. But what does it say about GM and Amazon? Next, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was in Lansing today to talk auto insurance reform. As a...

I-75 Road Construction Announced Plus 5 Things To Know Around Detroit

Today on the podcast, an eight-and-a-half-mile section of I-75 that has been falling into third-world disrepair lately is set to see reconstruction soon. The Michigan Department of Transportation has announced details of the reconstruction project, which will zero in on the stretch between 13 Mile and Coolidge, including 18 bridges. There’s no word on when exactly work will start, but it will likely have to wait ’til the current icepocalypse is done. Also on today’s show, bo...

PODCAST: Popular Places For Valentine's Day Plus 8 More Things To Know

On today’s show, we cover the funeral arrangements for former U.S. Rep. John Dingell, who died Thursday at age 92. Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, was the longest-serving member of the U.S. House, having served for 59 years when he stepped down at the end of 2014. And he left a huge impression on generations of Detroiters. Elsewhere, we delve into sportsball. Forbes says the Detroit Pistons fall one ranking to No. 26 for most valuable NBA teams (out of 30), despite increasing 15 pe...

Redevelopment of Former Tiger Stadium Site Set To Be Finished By Summer

Detroit-based architecture firm Rossetti has released some updated renderings for The Corner, its $30 million mixed-use development taking shape on the former site of Tiger Stadium at Michigan Avenue and Trumbull. Rossetti and Larson Realty Group, the development firm founded by Downtown Detroit Partnership CEO Eric Larson, are teaming on the project. The development adds to the new ballpark built and operated by the Detroit Police Athletic League. The four-story developmen...

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Legendary Motown Funk Brother Paul Riser On Playing With Stevie Wonder & How The Music Biz Has Changed

Paul Riser has played trombone, wrote songs and arranged music with some of the biggest names in popular music. As a member of the fabled “Funk Brothers,” the mostly anonymous house band for Motown Records during its heyday, he worked with the likes of Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, The Supremes and Smokey Robinson. Riser will appear at the Detroit Institute of Music Education on Friday, Feb. 8 2019 from 1-3 p.m., 1265 Griswold, for a “Paul Riser Masterclass” on lessons learned from his in...

PODCAST: How Michigan Needs More Money For Roads & 6 Other Things To Know

Paul Ajegba, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s nominee to head the Michigan Department of Transportation, faced a grilling in a state Senate committee on Tuesday. And he let slip a rather interesting tidbit, saying that MDOT likely needs another $1.5 billion in funding just to fix state roads. And that doesn’t account for the needs of counties, cities and villages. On today’s show, we break down the particulars, including why that $1.2 billion roads package lawmakers passed back in 2015 wo...

LISTEN: Cars, Bus Fares, Parking Rates And Bridges — Plus 6 Things To Know

Busy show for you podcast listeners today. Ford is laying off 1,000 employees at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, but offering them positions in other Ford plants, with about half expected to take jobs at the Livonia Transmission plant. Meanwhile, GM is adding 1,000 jobs at Flint Assembly to make heavy-duty Chevy and GMC trucks. Those jobs will be offered first to workers affected by the looming closure of four plants in the U.S., including two here in the Detroit area. Elsewhere, F...

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LISTEN: Detroit Restaurant Week And 7 Other Things To Know

It was an especially bad start to the week for many salaried employees at General Motors, as the automaker started handing out pink slip in a bid to eliminate 4,000 white-collar employees over the next two weeks. It’s part of plans GM announced in November and discussed on our podcast to slash 14,000 jobs and save $6 billion by 2020. In other news, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shakes up state government, restructuring and renaming the Department of Environmental Quality as the Departmen...

Cold Weather Problems, Gas Tax Hike Floated And Bridge's Truth Tour

Well, it’s cold out. Anyone noticed? If you’re like us, you no doubt noticed the emergency push alert sent to your mobile device Wednesday night, asking you to dial back your thermostats as the temperatures outside were heading to record subzero lows. On today’s show, we talk about what happened to precipitate that push alert — a fire at a Consumers Energy natural gas storage and compression plant in Macomb County, its largest — and how it illustrates how vulnerable our infr...

PODCAST: Inside Rivian, Detroit's Newest (And All-Electric) Automaker

You may have seen that Daily Detroit recently made its Detroit Public Television debut with a profile of Rivian, the electric vehicle maker that caught the automotive world by surprise last fall when it unveiled its high-powered, battery-electric pickup truck and SUV. For today’s episode, we’re following up on our promise to give you more from our visit to Rivian’s Plymouth Township headquarters. We have more from my interview with the company’s founder and CEO, R.J. Scaringe, in...

LISTEN: Arctic Temps, PFAS And 4 Other Things To Know Around Detroit

A new polar vortex is bearing down on Michigan and the upper Midwest, forcing widespread school closures, forcing Wayne State University and Michigan State University to cancel classes and the Detroit Zoo to close. On today’s episode, we run down some of the knock-on effects of the dangerously cold weather, which is expected to produce subzero temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills. Jer speaks with Gary Brown, director of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, about th...

SNOWCAST: CBD Cocktails, Pretzel Crust Pizza And 6 Other Things To Know

Greetings, fellow snow-bound Detroiters. We didn’t let the weather interfere with our podcast plans today and delivered this show from the Royal Oak studio of Podcast Detroit. On today’s show, newly Detroit-based Chemical Bank is merging with Minnesota-based TCF Bank in an all-stock merger of equals. The deal will see TCF vacate its suburban Minneapolis headquarters and join Chemical in being based in downtown Detroit, where employee head count will eventually reach 500. The...

PODCAST: Collapse Of The Packard Plant Bridge Spotlights The Plant's Colorful Past And Uncertain Future

On Wednesday, the Packard Plant’s bridge collapsed onto East Grand Boulevard. On today’s show, we talk about that and what we know about why it happened. And we use it as a jumping-off point to discuss the plant’s colorful past and ambitious — some might say quixotic — future plans. In its heyday, the Packard Plant was the largest automotive factory in the world, built for an automobile company known for its engineering and innovations like the 12-cylinder engine and the modern s...

PODCAST: New Report Indicts Michigan's Inadequate School Funding, Plus DIA Campus To Be Redesigned

Greetings from Detroit, which today looks like a snowglobe-turned-dismal outdoor slushie amid a brief thaw. On today’s show, we discuss a new report from the Michigan State University College of Education that finds tht funding for Michigan’s public schools has dropped more severely than in any other state over the past quarter-century. We’re now dead last among states for total education revenue growth. The report deliberately looks at the effects of Proposal A, the 1994 st...

PODCAST: MDOT Says I-75 Emergency Repairs Will Continue Until Spring

On today’s episode, we speak with Diane Cross, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, about the still-unfolding transportation apocalypse on northbound I-75 in Oakland County. There, potholes have proliferated since Monday, damaging cars, forcing the closure of the freeway and creating massive traffic snarls. Cross says it’s a textbook example of Michigan’s chronic under-investment in its road infrastructure, and emergency road repairs are likely to continue...

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WATCH: Electric Vehicle Maker Rivian Profiled In Our Detroit Public Television Debut

As we’ve been teasing on social media and our podcast, Daily Detroit is branching out to your teevee set. Last night, our first segment aired on the Detroit Public Television program One Detroit. It’s a visit to the Plymouth headquarters of electric vehicle upstart Rivian, which rocketed out of obscurity when it debuted its eye-catching, zero-emissions SUV and pickup truck at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. About 350 people work at the Plymouth location, which represents Rivian’s...

LISTEN: Why Engler Failed, Baker College Coming To Ferndale & 7 Other Things To Know

It’s a big news day here in Detroitland, and we’ve got your rundown right here, bub. Give a listen in the player above. First, huge news from East Lansing, where former Gov. John Engler is expected to resign as interim president of Michigan State University in the wake of comments he made about victims of the Larry Nassar sexual-assault scandal. Engler, you’ll recall, was brought in to clean up the mess after former President Lou Ann Simon resigned over her handling of the Nassar...