Cover Story
John Nienstedt, Detroit’s poster boy for the Catholic Church abuse scandal, is back — and the archdiocese has been keeping it quiet
It didn’t look like anyone was living at the home north of Port Huron — no cars in the driveway, no tire tracks in what was left of the snow and ice. Looking through a screen, I saw two pairs of boots on the floor, the corner of a treadmill, and a chair and table.…
Founders racial discrimination lawsuit moves forward in federal court
A federal judge dismissed one claim in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against Founders Brewing Co. by a former black employee. However, the plaintiff can continue with several other claims that are part of the suit. The judge dismissed a claim that former employee Tracy Evans was passed over for a promotion in favor of…
Detroit Artists’ Test Lab revisits 2012 documentary ‘Burn’ with free screening
When filmmakers Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez set out to document a year in the lives of the men and women of the Detroit Fire Department’s Engine Company 50, there were upward of 30 investigated fires per day. That’s nearly 10,000 fires per year, making Detroit the city with the most fires per capita in…
Detroit-native Choker returns home for Pike Room performance
It’s been suggested that the burgeoning artist known as Choker might be Detroit’s answer to Frank Ocean. (Hell, Choker might have been Detroit’s very own under-the-radar superstar, and it’s no wonder we lost him to Los Angeles.) His debut record, Peak, glides with intimate poetry with bursts of lush synths and moments of incredible stillness.…
Tuareg songwriter Mdou Moctar will perform intimate set at Trinosophes
At some point, the incredible experimental sounds of contemporary Saharan musician Mdou Moctar were discovered on memory cards from West African cellphones. Since then, he’s performed as the lead in the Nigeran remake of Prince’s Purple Rain (titled, Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red in It) and released several mixtapes and records, many…
Hey, teacher — The Wall Live Extravaganza will bring rock opera to the Fillmore
It’s been 40 years since legends Pink Floyd sucked us into the disturbingly surreal and Orwellian audio-visual world of The Wall. Tasked with interpreting that world is French-Canadian singer-songwriter Richard Petit who has been paying tribute for more than a decade with The Wall Live Extravaganza. A cover band this spectacle is not: dubbed a…
Reach into your paw-ckets — the Annual Cat Cabaret fundraiser returns to the Magic Bag
Guys — cats are really fucking cute, OK? First of all, cats have fur. They’re soft as hell and give zero fucks. Cats were literally worshipped by the Egyptians because they believed they were badass little guardians of the dead. And they purr! Like, living, breathing Nintendo 64 Rumble Paks. And nothing is more heartbreaking…
DJ powerhouse Charlotte de Witte heads to the Magic Stick
When it comes to women in techno, few names have risen to such stratospheric heights as quickly as Charlotte de Witte’s. Early in her career, the Belgium-based DJ went to great lengths to hide her gender in order to impress music fans with her selector skills under the DJ moniker Raving George. In 2015, however,…
Mayor Fouts really likes his young assistant. And it’s costing taxpayers
Amanda Mika’s tax-funded salary has nearly doubled since she was caught on video holding hands with her much older boss, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts. In eight years, Mika’s salary has ballooned from $40,000 to $76,569 working as Fouts’ executive assistant. The 91.4 percent pay hike is far above what most city employees have received during…
Craft cocktail bar and theater Barter opens this week in Hamtramck
A new craft cocktail bar and performance venue is preparing to open on Joseph Campau in Hamtramck. Barter is described by owner Cait Pluto as an “approachable” spot that she and two partners built out over the last year in a vacant storefront that last served as a travel agency. On the cocktail menu are…
‘THC not scientifically linked to impaired driving,’ says Michigan commission
A state-mandated commission has asked the state not to set a THC limit on Michigan drivers. The Impaired Driving Safety Commission, appointed by former Gov. Rick Snyder, is a six-member panel tasked with scientifically studying the effects of THC on driving. The panel included a medical marijuana patient as well as experts in law enforcement,…
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson diagnosed with stage 4 cancer but won’t step down
L. Brooks Patterson, the longtime Oakland County executive, announced Tuesday that he has stage-four pancreatic cancer and won’t run for an eighth term. The 80-year-old Republican cracked jokes after telling county officials, friends, and journalists that he was diagnosed with cancer on March 15 and has an 11 percent chance of surviving. “I intend to be…
Southwest Detroit slated to receive $16M mixed-use development
The city announced plans for a new $16 million mixed-use development planned for Southwest Detroit on Tuesday morning. The new development will feature 60 apartments, 40 parking spaces, and 5,000 feet of retail space in view of the Michigan Central Station (and future Ford Campus). Located at the intersection of Bagley and 16th Streets, the…
Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness is coming to Detroit — can you believe?
She’s strong like a Kelly Clarkson song and she’s gonna show you how to pomade, sashay, and serve up some confidence realness, hunty. When Netflix launched the Queer Eye reboot last year, a friggin’ star was born in Jonathan Van Ness (or JVN for the true stans.) As Queer Eye’s resident beautician, hair guru, pun…
Donut Fest is coming to Detroit to crown the city’s ‘best doughnut’
A new event called Donut Fest designed showcase Detroit’s best bakeries and doughnut makers is in the works for the Eastern Market. A press release from the Donut Fest organizers didn’t provide many details, but says the May 18 event will fill “guests with artisan doughnuts and handcrafted coffee.” “A selection of the city’s best…
The ‘Baby Trump’ balloon is coming to Grand Rapids
What’s orange, childish, full of hot air, and coming to Grand Rapids on Thursday? For one, President Donald Trump, who is holding a campaign rally at 7 p.m. at Van Andel Arena. But also the world-famous “Baby Trump” balloon — literally Trump rendered as a big, round baby, cellphone in hand — which will welcome…
It’s Oberon Day – here’s how you can celebrate
First, we turn our clocks ahead in the name of daylight savings followed by the spring equinox. Then, comes Detroit’s March du Nain Rouge. And then, before opening day is underway, there’s Oberon Day which can only mean one thing: we’ve survived winter. Before you grab just any cold one to celebrate, consider the reason for…
Detroit Police Chief Craig says he’s no ‘Sambo’
Detroit Police Chief James Craig fired back at a black activist group for giving him and another city official “Sambo Awards.” The “Call ‘Em Out Coalition” issued the annual awards Thursday to Craig and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Director Gary Brown, who has overseen water shutoffs for tens of thousands of Detroiters. The group’s…
Diana Ross takes to Twitter to defend Michael Jackson: ‘Stop in the name of love’
Detroit native and Motown legend Diana Ross is the latest celebrity to jump to Michael Jackson’s defense amid decades-long allegations of child molestation, underage grooming, and pedophilia. The 74-year-old diva took to Twitter Saturday afternoon to elicit the power of her 1965 hit with the Supremes, “Stop! In The Name of Love.” The sentiment was…
Mexican sandwich and cocktail specialist Peso opens in Southwest Detroit in April
A new modern Mexican restaurant specializing in tortas and cocktails opens in April in the former Fist Of Curry space. The concept, called Peso Detroit, is a partnership between the Fist Of Curry/Green Dot team and the owners behind the soon-to-open Toma Detroit. Co-owner Jose Maldonado tells Metro Times the menu will offer about 25…
Bad news, trolls: Cyberbullying is now illegal in Michigan
Attention internet trolls of Michigan: it’s time to clean up your act. Starting Wednesday, a new law goes into effect that makes cyberbullying a crime, punishable by fines and even jail time. Under Public Act 457, which former Gov. Rick “One Tough Nerd” Snyder signed in December, online harassment is now a misdemeanor crime punishable by a maximum…
The results are in: Golden Butthole is not among the chosen names for Sterling Heights’ ring
Well, it was fun while it lasted. The city of Sterling Heights has revealed its favorite five names pegged to define what has been dubbed The Golden Butthole by the internet (or the Golden Icon by those without a sick sense of humor.) Since launching the naming contest last week, the city claims that more…
Study: High auto insurance rates lock Detroiters into ‘cycle of poverty’
The “cycle of poverty” in Detroit won’t end until car insurance rates become more affordable, a University of Michigan study concludes. Detroit, the nation’s most impoverished big city, has the highest auto insurance rates in the nation. The average annual premium is $5,414, compared to $1,427 nationally. As a result, Detroiters on average spend 18…
Aretha Franklin concert film ‘Amazing Grace’ to premiere at Detroit Institute of Arts
A 1972 Aretha Franklin concert film will premiere in Detroit on Monday after being shelved for nearly half a century. The film, entitled Amazing Grace, documents the Queen of Soul during a two-day recording session at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. The film features few remarks from the 29-year-old Franklin, as…
A new coffee bar, beer hall, and fried chicken restaurant open in the Shinola Hotel
Three new food and beverage options will get up and running today in downtown Detroit’s Shinola Hotel. The New York City-based NoHo Hospitality Group is opening Penny Red’s and the Brakeman, a fried chicken restaurant and beer hall, respectively. The chicken recipe in Penny Red’s belongs to NoHo’s James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Carmellini, who…
Elon Musk announces Flint STEM school, invites students to tour SpaceX and Tesla factories
Tech billionaire Elon Musk surprised students at an assembly at Flint’s Doyle-Ryder Elementary School on Friday, announcing the creation of a new STEM-focused junior high school and inviting some students to tour his SpaceX rocket factory in California. According a statement from Flint Community Schools, the district will open the STEM junior high school in the 2019-2020…
FBI seized more than $200K from Taylor mayor’s home during raid
The FBI seized more than $200,000 from the home of Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars during a raid last month. Sollars, who has not yet been charged, is accused of bribery, money laundering, racketeering, and wire fraud. On Feb. 19, FBI agents raided city hall, Sollars’ home and cottage, and the home and office of a…
GM invests in Lake Orion plant after Trump’s tweets — but probably not because of Trump’s tweets
On Friday, General Motors announced it was investing $300 million in its small-car assembly plant in Orion Township to build a new electric Chevy, adding 400 new jobs at the plant. The car was initially planned to be built overseas and imported into the U.S. The announcement came after President Donald Trump slammed GM on Twitter over…
Jennifer Lopez is bringing her 50th birthday party to Detroit — yes, 50
Botox? A deal with the devil, perhaps? Maybe just a good old fashioned regimen of H2O and daily affirmations? We don’t know how actress, pop star, dance mentor, and red carpet goddess, Jennifer Lopez could possibly be turning the big 5-0 this year but she’s throwing herself a 25-city North American tour to celebrate…and show…
Study: Great Lakes region warming more than the United States as a whole
The Great Lakes region is warming faster compared to the rest of the country, according to a scientific report released Thursday. The study found the annual mean air temperature in the region rose 1.6 degrees from 1901-60 and 1985-2016, while the mean temperature for the rest of the U.S. rose 1.2 degrees. According to the report,…
Michigan bill would put drivers in jail for 0.05 blood-alcohol limit
Michigan may soon join Utah with the nation’s lowest drunken-driving limit. Rep. Abdullah Hammound, D-Dearborn, sponsored a bill that would lower the state’s blood-alcohol content (BAC) for driving under the influence from 0.08 to 0.05. All states had a BAC limit of 0.08 until Utah lowered it to 0.05 on Dec. 30. The National Transportation…
Phil Collins is very much alive and will deliver first Detroit concert in 15 years
Legendary performer Phil Collins wants us to know he’s not dead. Well, not yet, anyway. But if you don’t lose your damn mind every time the drums on “In the Air Tonight” kick the fuck in, you might want to check your pulse. While frontman Mick Jagger, 75, continues to shimmy and shake like a…
Two new skyscrapers slated for Midtown on Woodward Avenue
The scene along Woodward Avenue is set to change as two new skyscrapers are taking over an empty lot of land located between Alexandrine Street and Mack Avenue. Plans for a $310 million development called “the Mid” was announced today and will feature two skyscrapers sitting at 25 stories and 30 stories, respectively, Crain’s reports.…
Racial disparities continue in mortgage lending in Detroit
More than 50 years after racial discrimination in lending was barred by the federal Fair Housing Act, white people continue to receive a disproportionate share of mortgages for homes in Detroit. A 2018 study by the Center for Investigative Reporting’s online public reveal found that black applicants in metro Detroit were twice as likely to…
Choice Hotels sets its sights on a new downtown Detroit location
Downtown Detroit is getting another luxury hotel, this time from Choice Hotels International and Troy-based developer Koucar Management. The Cambria will be located at 600 W. Lafayette Boulevard, Choice Hotels International announced Thursday. The hotel chain hopes to have the 154 room hotel operational in 2020. The move is made as part of a strategic…
Treat Dreams re-opens with expanded roster of sweets in Ferndale
Small batch ice cream parlor Treat Dreams re-opened in Ferndale with an expanded menu that includes partnerships with some of Detroit’s sweetest businesses, like Cannelle, Rock City Pies, and Zingerman’s. All the scoops and shakes that it made its name on are still there, but Eater reports that Treat Dreams now serves five-pound ice cream…
MI voices waiting to be heard on World Water Day
DETROIT – Michiganders plan to come out and show their support for the right to clean drinking water. Friday marks the 26th annual World Water Day, highlighting the importance of clean drinking water across the globe. Shannon Abbott, president of Grand Rapids Water Protectors and vice president of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, says a…
‘Bird Box’ author partners with Detroit filmmakers for new screen adaption
The nation went into a frenzy last December when the screen adaption of Michigan author Josh Malerman’s novel Bird Box became the last great meme of 2018. The film, starring Sandra Bullock, tells the eerie tale of a woman fleeing down river from an unknown terror with two young children in tow — all while…
Emagine says Detroit will still get a movie theater after site gets sold to marijuana business
Detroit — a city that has only one first-run chain movie theater — is still expected to get a forthcoming theater from Michigan-based chain Emagine Entertainment Inc., but it looks like it won’t be located in the city’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood as previously believed. Crain’s reports that according to a source familiar with the matter,…
Pepe Z, Dave K open Grandma Bob’s Pizza this week in Corktown
There’re suddenly a lot of pizzerias in and around downtown Detroit, but the menu and concept at the city’s newest addition — Grandma Bob’s in Corktown — stands out. The Free Press reports that the restaurant will offer atypical pies like the coney pizza (beef chili, chopped hot dog, white onion, giardiniera, “sprinkle of cheddar…
Hurry! The Best of Detroit poll closes Friday
We’re getting close to cracking this case wide open. Real close. So close we can almost taste it. This city has secrets… and it’s our job to find them all. We’re talking about our Best of Detroit poll. We want you to spill the beans — on the best arts and entertainment, bars and clubs,…
Detroit cop who viciously beat naked, unarmed woman found guilty
A Detroit police corporal who beat a naked and unarmed woman inside Detroit Receiving Hospital was found guilty by a jury Tuesday and now faces up to 93 days in jail. Dewayne Jones was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery in August after video captured the 47-year-old cop punching a patient while another officer and…
Detroit-style pizza maker Buddy’s is once again expanding
After announcing a new restaurant in Grand Rapids and plans to take its brand national, Buddy’s Pizza is expanding closer to home. The Detroit-style pizza maker is planning two new locations in metro Detroit — one in Woodhaven and another in Plymouth. The Woodhaven location 21611 Allen Road could be open as soon as this…
‘Hamilton’ creator crashes Detroit performance
I wanted to hate Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning hip-hop musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton that is now playing at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre, but I just couldn’t. It really is that good. When I was watching it, I couldn’t help but imagine that Miranda must be a geek of the highest order, a geek’s geek…
Here comes ‘Big Marijuana’ and the Republican hypocrites
Anybody who was worried about “Big Marijuana” in Michigan can go ahead and get alarmed, because here it comes. Although modest (we’ll see if that changes in a few years after the federal government deschedules the stuff and bank financing is available), the wheeling and dealing shows that big money is deep in the game.…
Thomas Jefferson is canceled (or at least a Detroit group thinks an exhibition about the slave-owner should be)
On Friday, dozens of protesters braved the cold to gather outside of Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in protest of the traveling exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty, which opened to the public that day. Chanting “Jefferson was a racist, Jefferson was a pedophile,” the protesters held signs that…
How Leikeli47 keeps it real from behind her mask
For someone who rarely shows her face and is yet to divulge her real name, producer, rapper, and vocalist Leikeli47 is quite the open book. Her latest record, Acrylic, is a collection of stream-of-consciousness vignettes into her everyday life and the events and people that inspire her. In the record, she sashays between colloquial flows,…
Faye Webster is R&B’s adorable baby sister
At first listen, you might not guess that Faye Webster used to belong to a rap collective called PSA, rummaged through Offset’s closet, or collaborated with rising hip-hop star Ethereal. Webster’s music elicits images of sitting on the front porch on a dewy summer morning, drinking sweet tea … and then pulling out a fat…
Everything you need to know about Detroit’s Marche du Nain Rouge, which turns 10 this year
On Sunday, Detroiters will once again don red-and-black costumes, gather in the historic Cass Corridor, and endure the taunts of the legendary Nain Rouge, or “Red Dwarf,” before chasing him out of the city. If all of this sounds foreign to you, then it’s probably time for a Nain explainer. Here are some fast facts…
Horoscopes (March 20-26)
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 This isn’t your first rodeo. Having been here many times before, it’s looking either good or bad, depending on how you decide to spin it. In many ways, you have good reason to be ticked off by the fact that you’re back at square one. If that is the…
Amanda Palmer’s fans will let her do whatever she wants
Amanda Palmer is a sick fuck. This is how she describes herself amidst an emotional hangover following a “surreal” listening party and sleepover for her latest record in the Catskills. She is also one of the most hated women on the internet, or at least she was, and has become as polarizing of a feminist…
River Spirit gets by with a little help from their friends
It’s intrinsically tricky to summarize a band like River Spirit. There is as much “ethereal” here as there is “angst,” as much “murk” as is “mystic,” or as much tenderness and soul-baring as there is a jaggedness and poetically veiled introversion. Dan Steadman doesn’t see River Spirit as “musicians” in the traditional sense, or at…
Savage Love: Crazy switch Asians
I’m a straight white woman in my early 30s. In theory, I’ve always been into men of all races — but in practice, most of my exes are Latino and white. In September, I met this really handsome Chinese American guy, and I feel like he rewired me. I’ve been exclusively attracted to Asian guys…
Why Trump won’t call white nationalism a threat
About twenty-four hours after a white supremacist massacred 50 people during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that country’s prime minister announced a ban on semi-automatic rifles — an example of how quickly common sense can prevail when a major political party isn’t a wholly owned subsidiary of a sociopathic gun lobby.…
Review: Some of the John R corridor’s best bites are at Madison Heights’ Que Huong
Late last year, we poured out a little bone broth for Thuy Trang, the excellent Madison Heights pho parlor that for reasons unknown to us quietly closed. It was one of the greats, but, fortunately, Madison Heights is basically awash in excellent broth, and you don’t need to go far to find more fine pho.…
Review: ‘High Flying Bird’ is a low-fi take on the sports drama
I’d hardly be the first to classify the sports movie as the male version of what soap operas were once dismissed as: the weepie. A softer version of its cousin, the war movie, sports films tend to be affirmative, emotionally driven, and implicitly conservative. With its typical patterns (which it shares with armed forces recruitment)…
