JR Morning ~ July 28, 2026 ~ Full Show

I'm proud to say that the auto industry is back and America is back and it's pulling Detroit and Michigan along with it. That's the president yesterday at the Proven Grounds in Milford and... Mary Barr was there and welcomed him. Yeah. And look, all the Republicans were there. Mike Rogers, who we'll talk to later on in the show. John James was there. Tim Walberg was there. Lisa McLean was there. I mean, everybody was there. And the president, you know, it was funny, I was golfing yesterday after the show. And I look up and the people I was golfing with, Jeff Marseuror, our sales director, I think we looked up like it, is that Air Force one? I think that's Air Force One. Yeah. But the president came in. He toured the facility. He said he thought this was the biggest piece of asphalt he's ever seen in one place. Which I thought was kind of funny. I also liked the line that he said, he's doing more for the workers of the automotive sector. He's done more for them than their parents. And he says, wherever your parents are, they've probably done a lot for you, but I've done more. I thought that was funny. It's Donald Trump. It's ridiculous, but it's what he does. And he talked a lot about. the automotive industry, obviously. He talked a lot about what would have happened if he weren't elected. He thought that Biden or Kamala Harris would be wonderful. You would have no, you would have Mary H. said you wouldn't have an auto industry right now if they got elected. This is the stuff about Donald Trump because there was a lot of substance. that he brought yesterday. He talked about the tariffs on Chinese vehicles on these Chinese EVs, that there are 100% tariffs on them and they were not allowed in the United States because they don't want to pay the premium. Right. That these foreign automakers that were building trucks, that they were not building them in the United States. And so there was a tariff attached to them, which was making them more unaffordable. And as a result, we are seeing better sales in the truck segment. for our automakers here. Yeah. And so there was some there, but I don't understand that. That's the stuff of Donald Trump that I don't get. And he's got to do it. And he did the like poll, like, should it be Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe? And it's like, we don't need that. Yeah. That's not what we need right now. He's trying to whip up the base. He's trying to rally the base ahead of the midterms. And, you know, I. It was fine. It was a classic Donald Trump address. Speaking of the midterms, what did you think of the debate last night? Well, I'll tell you this. Did you like the format? No, I don't. I don't like the format. I don't like the format either. I don't know it was the same format with the others. I just didn't like it then. Don't like it now. I don't like it either. I, I, it's odd to me that.

It's taken Abdul El-Sayed to bring out this idea of PAC money. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Pack money has been in the game for a long time. Yeah. If you think that A-PAC is giving Haley Stevens money, this is like a breaking news sounder. I don't know where that is. Play that breaking news sounder. It's not breaking news. No. This isn't new. It's broken news. It's right. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. This is, this is that sock that you've had for 30 years. That, that, and water's wet. Yeah. political action committees give to candidates all the time and they have been for how long but we continue to focus on it as it be yeah there we go oh

It's too early to declare a decline because of reporting delays and the parasite's long incubation period. The CDC has now linked the outbreak to nine states with contaminated shredded, shredded iceberg lettuce from central Mexico, believed to be the source. There's a story in one of the papers this morning. I think it's the free press of a lady who was in a hospital. She ate some Taco Bell on June 15th. She didn't find out she had cyclospore until July 24th. She said her whole... Summer was all messed up. She kept asking people like, think I got cyclospora? Oh, no, you don't have that. You don't do some other tests. They finally tested her for it and it came back. And then it took a week to get the test back. So she was still going through what she was going through. And they finally told her, oh, yeah, yeah, you got it. Here's some medication now. After a month, throwing up and, you know, feeling bad and dehydrated and had to go to the hospital to get IVs. It's crazy. Yeah, it's not fun. It's not. It's not fun. Can attest. Well, it is, it is, it is not fun. Tigers lose eight to five yesterday, Jason. What are we doing here? You know who the real winner was last night? I was just watching the video. The squirrel. I would die. That squirrel can do some juke moves, man. He can play center field. Yes. Can we get him a bat? You know, as each passing day goes, and you talked about it last week, they need to sell, sell, sell, sell. Four games back in the wild card, four games back in the division, but. Okay. You know, seven games under five. Okay, let's put your money where your mouth is. What are you selling? Because Scoople's comments, Scooples comments after his last start where he's like, I don't know where anybody's getting this idea that I don't want to be here. I want to be here. I haven't said that. Yada yada. If they don't trade him, then they're going to sign him. Then they're going to sign him to a bigger deal. But if they are going to trade him, do you trade him and Casey Meiss? Do you, well, how big is the sell-off here? I would just say scoble. Now, I know the brewers are interested. They've sent a back a package that would include a starting pitcher who pitches now and then two bats. That's what I've seen so far. But do you think they're going to pay him, though? Well, I would just say if I think if they do not trade him, then they have to keep him. Yes, then he will. Then they're going to have to pony up. Yeah, they have to pay them. And pay him. And what does, of course, what does that do for the offense going forward? But again, if you believe all of these reports that they're so, that they're not even close to a deal. Like they were so far on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what would have changed now. What would have changed? I think they probably could have done what they wanted to, but they were just waiting to see. I don't know. I mean, look, they've lost three in a row now. And normally that doesn't matter. They can still win this series against Baltimore. Yeah. But all I'm saying is is trade deadline is in what, seven days, six days. And three consecutive losses is not the way to handle this schedule at this point. Coming up on the other side.

The debate between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, they went toe-to-to-to-one. We'll talk about it with Craig Margaret. It's Jeremy. So Haley Stevens and Abdul-Ellis-Syad go toe-to-to last night on Fox 2 in their debate before the primary... What? Continue. It wasn't tantalizing for you? You know, it was... It was, I don't know. I mean, I don't think we, it, nothing felt new. That's all I'm saying. Nothing felt like there was any real ground gained is how it felt to me. It was kind of walking through the same motions that we've been walking through. Meanwhile, this is, I mean, the political spotlight shines brightest on this race. Oh, absolutely. Across the country. And the big money that's being spent on this race. Absolutely. Craig Mogger is the state politics reporter at the Detroit News and joins us. Craig, good morning. Thanks for having me. I think you guys are making the right point. I mean, a lot of the back and forth last night is very familiar to people who have been following this race for a few months. I mean, there wasn't a lot of new ground. But there's a lot of people checking in right now. I mean, there's a lot of people who are just figuring out, wait, there's a Senate primary race that's getting a lot of attention going on. So for those people who are checking into this here in the final days, you know, I think that was a pretty good primer on what this race is about. If you were grading the debate strictly on performance, Craig, not politics, who had the stronger night? I'm going to agree with a lot of people and say I think it was pretty much a tie. I mean, I think we know it's very tough at this point in a race that has gone on for as long as this one has. And they've had so many debates. Not a lot of them have been televised, but they've had so many joint appearances. they kind of know what the others' plays are and how to respond to them. So I think it's very difficult for one of them to land a knockout punch when they kind of know where the punches are coming from from their opponent. So I think that was it. I mean, they were going through the motions of this person is going to say this and I'm going to respond with this. The moment that we highlighted and the one that, you know, talking to our staff who was watching the debate, that. Might live on a little bit here was when they were battling over DTE political contributions. And Representative Stevens said, she was asked twice, have you taken money from DTE or Consumers Energy for your Senate campaign? And twice, she told Rup Raj no.

And that's a very, it's not as easy as some people think to say whether that is a lie or not, or to say whether, you know, she's misleading people because the campaign finance laws are somewhat tricky. But the facts are, as we laid out in our story, I think it's on our website now, she took money a few weeks before she launched her Senate campaign. from DTE and consumers to her House fundraising committee and then later moved it to her Senate committee. And the question was asked for your listeners, did you take money from DTE consumers for your Senate committee? So that's one where Google points it out. I mean, that might be one that voters hear about, I would say, in the coming day. I thought. in particular also the way that Haley Stevens painted Abdul El-Sayed as somebody who isn't really interested in being a U.S. senator from the state of Michigan, that he has more bigger political aspirations like being president. I thought that landed in a way that contrasted her from him as well. Yeah, I mean, and I don't think he really had a response to it. He didn't. No. Which is, which is something that I'm surprised by because she has been making that argument for many weeks now. And you kind of would think that he would have something to push back on that with, you know, quickly a short message to rebut it. And he just did, he did not have it. He was kind of a little bit all over the place in his reply to that. But that's her argument. I mean, that's how she's framing the race. He wants to write books. He wants to do podcasts. I want to be a workhorse on policy for Michigan. She's really leaning into a differing strategy. And she did that in multiple ways. Throughout the debate, she says her campaign is about meeting people where they are, being in communities. He's holding these rallies with national politicians. You know, that's her argument. He's really leaning into differences in policy. Here are where we are completely different on how we are going to vote on bills and what bills we're going to pursue and where our money is coming from to approach those bills. You know, I'd be interested in your guys take on this, but it's fascinating to me. We cover a lot of primary races. You guys do too. Some of them that candidates are very similar. You can't get much more different than these two. I mean, the differences are so clear. Yes. so divided for Michigan primary voters, which way do you want to go? And it's going to be absolutely fascinating to see where voters land on August 4th. We're just a few days away from the primary, Craig. Is there still a meaningful number of undecided voters or have most Democrats already made up their minds?

I mean, I think a lot of people have made up their minds. I think a lot of people have voted already. But talking to both campaigns, they expect this to be a very close race. And I would suspect that there are many people out there still who won't make up their mind until they get in that voting booth on August 4th. Those people might decide this thing if it's that close. I mean, it is, the polling that has been out there indicates it will be a close race. Things can move one way or another pretty quickly at the end of an election. So we'll see. I mean, we have not had a race like this in quite a while. Yeah. Fascinating. Well, and to your point of how the analysis of this race and these two candidates and them being so different, I actually think Mallory and Mallory McMorrow getting out of this race, muddied it even further. Because, I mean, truly, because all of a sudden you had this large swath of voters that were supporting her that didn't necessarily want the status quo and maybe what Haley Stevens represents, but they don't want to go as far as Abdul El-Sayed does. So it actually feels like her jumping out of this race made things. little more difficult for primary voters. Yeah, I think you're right. And I heard someone say, as I was kind of watching all the social media reaction last night, someone said on the Internet, this would be an easier choice for me if it was between Abdul and Mallory. And I was like, that's kind of interesting. And I'm guessing Haley supporters would say this would be an easier choice if it was between Haley and Mallory because they would feel like, I don't want to go to Abdul, but I'll go to Mallory. Right. So this is such a stark difference. It really is. It's very fascinating. Craig Mogger, appreciate the analysis. Thank you. We'll talk soon. Well, we've been talking for years about the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. I've been talking for the better part of 2026 about the United States and Iran. And now these two situations are colliding in the Caspian Sea, which has become. one of the new battlegrounds or at least spotlights in this conflict between Iran and its adversaries and the growing relationship between Tehran and Moscow and how Ukraine is now playing a role in this. Let's talk about it with Jonathan and Savage, the Fox News reporter and WJR contributor joins us this morning. Jonathan, it's good to have you back. How are these two worlds colliding at this point? ways, really. One Iran allegedly helping Russia, the other Russia allegedly helping Iran. But the big development over the last few days was Ukraine carrying out successful long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea, targeting not just a Russian warship, but an Iranian commercial vessel allegedly transporting military cargo for Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the operation achieved very good results.

Iran said that the attack caused an explosion and board one of their ships, killed one sailor, wounded another, and the foreign minister of Iran immediately declared this attack cannot go unanswered. You know, the Kaspian Sea isn't an area of most Americans associate with the Ukraine war. Why is that body of water so strategically important to both Russia and Iran? Yeah, we've normally talked a lot about the Black Sea, because that is a sea which could go out into the open ocean through Istanbul. It has borders with Ukraine and Russia. The Caspian Sea is, it's really an enormous lake in some ways because it is landlocked, but it borders both Russia and Iran. So it's a method by which you can have direct links from Iran to Russia without having to... to pass through any countries over land. I'm curious to know about that threat or that warning issued by Tehran about this is something that can't go unanswered. Is this something that Iran decides to engage with themselves, one of their terror groups that they fund, or is this going to come directly from Moscow? Well, you're certainly right to say that Iran has options in this regard. It has the ability to carry out strikes using its own military. It has these proxy groups which operate around the Middle East. such as Hamas and Hezbollah, Islamic jihad, and then these smaller groups which are based in places like Iraq. And then Iran also has methods which are perhaps less obvious using undeclared groups or perhaps... cyber attacks on Ukraine. All these things are the sort of things Ukraine would be looking out for. But there's no clear way in which Iran is threatening Ukraine right now in terms of exactly what it's going to do. Ukraine is dismissing these threats, saying that Iran's threats are unjustified and groundless. So military analysts say that Ukraine is kind of stretching itself by taking on Iran indirectly. Others argue that it's simply attacking another critical link in Russia's war machine. Which argument carries more weight right now, you think? Yeah, I mean, look, Ukraine is not carrying out full-scale waves of strikes against Iran. This was very much limited to a ship which it sees as being part of Russia's war machine, a commercial ship which was carrying equipment. for the Russian military. So it is certainly a limited interaction between Ukraine and Iran. We're not seeing Ukraine attack Iran on their shores by any means. So I think that this is likely to stay limited. But Russia and Iran have very deep connections, very deep links. They're said to be exchanging intelligence as well. And Ukraine is going to try and shine a spotlight on that.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met at the NATO summit just a few weeks ago. They're slated to meet again at the White House. What is that today? Yeah. And I'm curious to know if there was something talked about in that meeting earlier this month that would have led to this type of action by Ukraine. Oh, that would be a good question. I don't know if there is, but there's no doubt that Ukraine is trying to let the Trump administration know that in their view, Iran has been helped by Russia in the conflict against the U.S. And Volodymyr Zelensky, with a pretty explosive claim, saying he's got evidence that Russian satellites were used. to help Iran identify and target U.S. military bases in the Gulf before Iranian missile strikes occurred. Ukraine says it will share that intelligence with Washington. That could form part of the meeting today. President Trump was asked about this the other day. He downplayed the scale of Russian involvement, saying that if it does exist, it has been limited and largely ineffective in his view. President Volodymyr Zelensky is also probably likely to follow up another topic that was raised at the NATO summit, that of patriot. missile interceptors. He wants permission to manufacture those interceptors under U.S. license, and President Trump indicated in Ankara earlier this month that he would do that. Jonathan, what does this latest development mean for the U.S. and NATO? I mean, does this increase the pressure on Western allies to provide more support, or does it just raise concerns about the conflict broadening maybe even further? I don't think that this is going to bring NATO further into scope here. We know that NATO is a strong supporter of Ukraine and a backer of Ukraine, and we know that Ukraine wants to join NATO one day. But, you know, because there's no unanimity in NATO, particularly from the American side to Ukraine joining the alliance, that's not likely to happen anytime soon. I think that what we are going to see is NATO continuing to... perhaps using this to put pressure alongside the Ukrainians on President Trump to say, look, Russia is a major adversary here to not just Ukraine, but to the United States as well right now, and they should be treated as such. Interesting. Jonathan Savage, we appreciate the time. Thank you. We'll continue to watch this. We know you will too. Appreciate you. But you're going to have these dignitaries coming in for Lindsey Graham's funeral, Benjamin Netanyahu will be there. Volodymyr Zelensky will be there as well. So I am curious as to what happened in their meeting earlier this month at the NATO summit. Because it feels like, and we've heard that there has been, the Ukrainians are saying, well, they have proof that Russia is directly impacting the war between the United States. and Iran by helping Tehran. Okay, well, if that's the case, then I have to imagine it would at least be prudent for the United States to then work with Ukraine in some way to say, well, then how can we, how can we, you know, two birds with one stone? Yeah, exactly. And there's got to be a way that can be done. Well, if you're talking about Iranian oil tankers bringing, you know, whatever over. Right. All of a sudden, that is your two birds, one stone moment. There you go.

But the president says now at this point that things are going well. He said it yesterday at the GM Proving Grounds of Milford that like they are talking. There seems to be some progress on that front. And we're beating the heck out of them. That's what he said. Yeah, and that's okay, also fine. But when it comes to the more strategic pieces on the chess board, there is certainly more at play here, especially when you're... Oh, absolutely. But you're dealing with a regime that you can't really... you know, trust half the time. Very true. Let's talk about M-City on the other side. What is it? And what are they doing here in our area? We'll talk about it. It's part of mobility makers next and chair morning. Well, always here on a Tuesday, we'd like to highlight some of the things that are happening in mobility. And that is no different today because we are talking about M-City. And it's something that's happening right here. in our area. And Jim Mike Lawler is the manager of M-City Test Facilities and joins us this morning as part of mobility makers, which is brought to you by Bridgestone, getting people down the road matters, getting generations down them, but that's what really matters. Bridgestone, visit What Really Matters.com to learn more. Jim, good morning to you. Good morning, sir. How are you? We are well. Let's talk a little bit about what you're doing at M-City. Yeah, M-City is a little over a decade old. It's located on North Campus, but it's a purpose-built facility built by industry and government partners to test and evaluate autonomous vehicles. And you know, when people hear autonomous vehicles, they immediately think of self-driving cars, but M-City is doing much more than that, isn't it? Yes, it is. About a year ago, with the support of the governor, we answered the president's EO on drone dominance and have kind of taken our expertise from autonomous vehicles and applied it to drones. and advanced air mobility. Yeah. How has the mission changed over the last decade? Because we've seen incredible advancements over the last decade, particularly in AI technology. But even for you guys at the University of Michigan, how are things changing? I would say originally it was trying to find the technologies that would work, but I think we've come to the point now where, you know, MCI, we strongly believe that autonomous vehicles need to be, you know, verified and validated if they're going to share the roads with us. So we've been working pretty hard to establish the MCD safety assessment program, which is like a driver's license test for autonomous vehicles.

We're starting to hear that now from the federal government, that there's a possible NPRM coming. That would kind of codify that. That autonomous vehicles do need to be verified and validated before they're on the roads with us. And we've been working really hard to find a way to do just that. You know, I know your test track includes. Everything has intersections and roundabouts, railroad crossings and building facades. Why is it so important to recreate this real world driving condition before these technologies even reach our neighborhoods? Um, kind of analogy I've heard is, uh, flying the moon's easy driving around the block a couple times is harder. Uh, you know, the roads have to operate in a very, you know, vehicles have to operate a very complex environment. Um, they have to share that space with humans. Uh, sometimes we're not exactly, um, predictable, if you will. Um, so the test facility is designed to create the most realistic environment as possible. so that we can, you know, we can evaluate autonomous vehicles technology and, you know, assess whether or not it is or is not safe. Hmm. And I do want to go back to something you talked about. You talked about being the leader in drone technology. How are you applying what you've learned at the ground level and going up and scaling upwards and using that next level for research and development? You know, a lot of the same technology stacks that, you know, control autonomous vehicles will also be controlling, you know, on the ground will also be controlling drones and AM in the sky. And also the communication mediums, 5G and other radio communications. are, you know, similar to what we've been using for autonomous vehicles for decade, you know, now and are going to be leverage for, you know, aircraft flying in our national airspace. You know, drones and advanced air mobility sharing the airspace, you know, our national airspace. And, you know, AI is transforming transportation. How much of what happens at MCITY today is really about kind of teaching AI how to make better decisions behind the wheel and in the air? I would say it's, yeah, we have created MCD2.0 with the help from the National Science Foundation, created a digital twin of MCITY. That allows us to, you know, the interplay with the physical space and the synthetic digital twin allows us to create testing environment that you just can't do anywhere else. Jim, no, go ahead, go ahead. No, you can go. Well, no, I think it's fascinating what you guys are doing. And I think at the end of the day, the developments that are happening at M City are going to pay huge dividends, not only to our region, but what we're going to see across the country, across the world. And we're so happy that it's all happening here and has been happening here for some time. Jim Mike Lawler, we appreciate your time this morning talking about what you guys are doing. We'll talk again very soon.

Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, you got it. You do the same. Pretty cool. Listen, man, I mean, the technology, it just, you know, it gets better and better every day. I mean, this is another example. I do want to give you an update to a story we talked about yesterday. The Salamanca City Central School District, they announced that they were going to have this humanoid robot teacher. They spent almost $60,000 on it. Well, now they've walked back plans to introduce this. They're going to put this on hold. They say, that ensuring the appropriate privacy protections are in place and incorporating input from our community are important parts of the process. We appreciate your patients and we'll share additional updates as they become available, but they are going to engage with the community and stakeholders on this front. Do you kind of think that maybe that should have been done before you spent? 60 grand. Well, Lloyd, I don't know about you, but I always like to spend $60,000 without ever doing any legwork or due diligence to make sure. You know, it's like. I'm asking for a friend. It's like buying a vehicle when you don't have a drive. I don't know. Like it's just, you're just like, oh, we'll just do this and we'll figure it out on the other end. On the other end, yeah. And we're dealing with kids and their education here. And teachers that are now pretty upset. Absolutely. Because they feel like they've been slighted and turned aside because of a robot. Boy. Yeah. I just would have thought they would have figured all that out before the big splash. We're going to get these teachers, you know, these robot teachers. Yeah. The union president there. Our students don't need robots. They need real relationships with caring adults. Educators notice when students are struggling, celebrate when they succeed and help them discover who they can become. No robot can do that no matter how lifelike this or regional specific accent these robots have. They can't achieve that level of connection with students, which I think is probably true, at least in the in the in the now. Yeah. I remember going to counselors, you know, when you're in school and you would go see your counselor and your counselor would talk to you about what you want to do. But they kind of knew you and knew your family and knew your background, and it's different, you know, to me. Now, maybe you can program a robot to do all that stuff, but it's just, this is. I don't know. It's just not the same. I don't know. I don't think a robot could quite yell at me like when my math teacher in high school would yell at me for falling asleep in class. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's just a level of human interaction there that I think you need. Yeah, yeah. Hood up, head down. Oh, definitely. My teacher took a picture of me sleeping in class with the, you know, the drool and then put it up on the showcase during parent-teacher conference. Yeah.

You can't have Sally like, Lloyd, please wake up. That's not going to happen. That's not going to do anything. This is not the time to sleep. I don't think that works. 7 o'clock hour coming up. It's your morning. 7 o'clock hour here on a Tuesday. And the president in town yesterday, he spoke. At length, a little over an hour, I think it was. And he talked a lot about the auto industry. He was at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford. So he talked a lot about that. And all the major Republican players were on the stage. John James and Mike Rogers, obviously, those two endorses of Donald Trump. John James says that he wants to bring investments back to Michigan. addressing the folks at the Proving Grounds. The president, because it's the best deal maker the planet has ever known, President Donald Trump has gotten $19 trillion of investment back to the United States of America, but because of the failed policies of Gretchen Whitmer, a lot of that investment is not coming back here. We're working with you, Mr. President, we're going to make sure that we have an environment where we can bring that investment back to the state of Michigan to create jobs right here for the best auto workers in the world. So obviously it was a way to highlight some of the economic wins for the president. It was a way for him to talk about some of the manufacturing, the investments that have been undergoing that are still ongoing from our big three here in the United States of America. And it was also a way to rally the troops. It was also a way to whip up the vote ahead of the primary next week. And there was a debate. yesterday as well. What did you think? A debate last night between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed. It was a lot of the same. Yeah. You know. Did you learn anything new that you didn't already know? No, not particularly. And here's the thing is like you listen to us every day. And the reason you listen to us is because you're tuned in. And you're dialed in more than most people. And I... I watched that debate last night, and I was watching it, and I was thinking of you driving around in the car this morning on your way to work, thinking, you already know all this. What did you learn last night that was out of the ordinary, something new, something different? I looked at it from that vantage point, and I didn't find much. Well, for the people who are tuned in who really know what's going on, yeah, they probably didn't learn very much. But for those who are just now checking in because they've been... traveling they've been doing other things not really paying attention and they're like okay let's see what's going on here this was the last debate i think between them before the primary maybe they did learn something yeah i guess i just feel like those people are kind of on the fringe anyway like you're going to vote on the whim yeah you're not going to dig into the issues you're not going to dig into the i i i think

I think most people that are listening to this show or that listen to this station are tuned in. Oh, absolutely. They're dialed in. 100%. But to your point, there are a lot of people out there that are just, woo. Yeah. They're out there doing whatever they got to do. Look, I get it. I don't know the background of these guys, but I'm going to watch this debate. And let me see. I think this person did better than that person. So that's who I'm voting for. And I don't fault people for that. You got lives. You got bills to pay. You got a job and families and all those things. So I get it. I get it. But I think for a lot of the people that are dialed in, it felt like a lot of the same. It was a milestone moment along the border yesterday. Top officials helped open the brand new Gordy Howe International Bridge and style, Senator Gary Peters. He led the way, becoming the first person to ride across the new Detroit Windsor Span on a motorcycle. I mean, of course he would because he's a motorcycle guy. Governor Gretchen Whitmer followed close behind, crossing into Canada behind the wheel of a Michigan-made black... for Mustang convertible. You know, to see this huge span that has been built, it is spectacular. And I think it's a tribute, not just to Gordy Howe, but to the relationship between Canada and the United States, and especially Michigan and. Canada. It features six travel lanes, multi-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians and dozens of new inspection booths to keep international traffic moving. So now the pass for cyclists and pedestrians, I believe, that they open next week. They're not open right now. That's next week, but they're going to be there. So you'll be able to take a bike over there and take a walk. Pretty cool. Yeah, pretty cool. Oh, cyclospora. Your friend. My friend. Hello, darkness, my old friend. Michigan's record setting cyclospore outbreak continues to grow. The state reporting more than 9,200 cases since late June, and that's an increase of 13% since Friday. And health officials say 160 people have been hospitalized, though nearly half of Monday's newly reported cases were delayed because of... lab testing. The outbreak has spread to 70 Michigan counties, Wayne County, reporting the highest number of cases. Experts say the outbreak may be beginning to level off, but caution, it's too early to declare a decline because of reporting delays in the parasite's long incubation period. The CDC has now linked the outbreak to nine states with contaminated shredded iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico, believed to be the source. It's kind of hard for me to say it's leveling off when it keeps growing. The cases keep growing, you know? Yeah, but it feels like they're not quite as large jumps.

Like we were seeing early on. Well, no, I mean, but, you know, 13% from Friday is, to me, I think is a pretty nice clip. Oh, no, it is. It is. You know what I mean? They were doubling basically almost every day earlier on. So at least that's not happening. Oh, yeah. You know, so let's. But it's still out there. It's still out there. And people are. People are still dealing with it and having, you know, remnants of it even after it's gone. You've been feeling pretty good, though, haven't you? Yeah, we're on the mend, which is good. You know what? I did break my rules, though. I've decided to go back to the fruit. Oh, I thought you were about to say. I did break my rules. I did go to Taco Bell. No, God, no. No. But I'm back on the fruit and vegetables. Okay. Okay. But you know what we're doing? What's that? We're going to farmers markets. Yeah. A lot of people are doing that. That's what we're doing. That's what a lot of people are doing. So I'm getting my produce from farmers markets. Yeah. Yeah. And look, it's great because then you get to support them and it's a win-win for everybody. 100%. And hopefully avoid cyclospora. Yes. Yes. I love it. I still see long lines, though, at the drive-thru when I go past Taco Bell, just so you know. Really? People are still going? Oh, yeah. I still see the line. All right. God bless to each their own. Wonderful country we live in. Seven 12. Yes, Brian. We went on Saturday. You went to, you want us to talk about Saturday? Absolutely. Did they not have lettuce and whatever? No, there was lettuce there. If you wanted it, there was lettuce. Okay. This guy's playing Russian roulette. Anything to get a day off, dude. 712, time for WDJR's business. Be brought you by shelving.com. We rock your world. Here's Jeff Sloan, the founder and CEO of Startup Nation, is spotlight the entrepreneurial tech and startup community on WJR. Good morning. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force participation rate for men 20 years and older continues to decline. In May of this year, 69.5% of men are accounted for in the labor force. That's a 6.5% decrease from where it stood in May of 2006. Now, by comparison, women age 20 or older are also showing a decline in labor force participation, but less dramatically than our men. In May 2006, participation by women was at 60.4% while today it's at 58.2%. And the decline is expected to continue for both men and women in the coming years, currently forecasted to be at 66% in 2050 for men. While women's rates are predicted to fall less dramatically, it's currently projected to be at 55% by 2050. Why the decline? Well, a new paper from the University of Connecticut theorizes that the participation rate could be deeply tied to generational experience. Economist Remy Levin and Daniela Vedart noted that men's beliefs about work are shaped particularly during childhood. Young men who grow up watching weak wages and high unemployment in their community can be affected by such factors later on in life.

creating a jaded and pessimistic view of the workforce and their opportunity to be part of it. That makes them less likely to participate in the labor force, the economists explained. So while there's a myriad of other factors that one may assume is the reason why participation in the workforce is declining, the fact is, perhaps, according to these economists anyway, it's happening because of jaded views established early in a young person's life. I'm Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of StartupNation.com, the source for everything you need to start and grow your own business. And that's today's business beat on the great voice of the Great Lakes, WJR. I'm proud to say that the auto industry is back and America is back, and it's pulling Detroit and Michigan along with it. That's the president yesterday at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford. John Selleck, the CEO and Chief Strategist at Harbor Strategic. was on hand to witness it all and joins us this morning. John, good morning. Good morning, Chris. What was the vibe in that room? The president was talking a lot about his economic policy, the automotive industry, manufacturing. Is it a message that resonated amongst his base? Well, I think so. His base consistently shows that they're pretty supportive of the president. And even though that was considered a, quote, official event talking about policy and tariffs and trade and everything else, I still think the timing of it and everything still made it feel more like it's a rally around the candidates that he's endorsed going into our primary day. Michigan is kind of an odd duck in the sense that our primaries come so late in the year. Most of the other states already did theirs. That's why we have all these national media in here, watching the Democratic Senate primary, watching our governor's primary. And that's why we saw John James up there because he got the endorsement and he's still facing some... minor competition here from Perry Johnson. Until the answer, I think the president wanted to come in and put a stamp of approval on that. That's why we saw Mike Rogers and John James looked there on the stage. President Trump argued that his tariffs are a big reason GM is thriving and said that it's amazing what terrorists will do for General Motors. What's your reaction to that claim, especially after talking with businesses across Michigan? Well, you know, that's a good question, Lloyd. I work with what we call Mista, the Michigan Smart Trade Alliance. And it's a fancy name for most of the major business groups in Michigan from the Detroit Regional Chamber and Mish Auto all the way to S-BAM and the Grand Rapids Chamber and the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance. You go anywhere around the state. Those groups are part of our alliance. And it's because they're members, the people who are making things and are part, especially. of the automotive supply chain are very, very worried. The costs are going up because as some of our coalition members talk about, the automotive industry and the way it's intercollarly tied to Canada and Michigan in particular have been going on for 100 years. And you can't just throw a tariff out and expect that all the manufacturing will move over. What we're looking for is consistent pay policy. We're not seeing that right now. Most businesses can't make long-term smart decisions on a policy that's changing all the time. So we need to protect that. And now the USMCA expiration date has come on. The president has said he's not going to automatically want to renew it and negotiate it. We need to have some form of USMCA to protect the way our automotive supply chain works. And it's not just autos.

It's agriculture. It's tourism. It's all the rest of manufacturing. That's not part of the autos. They all have great concerns. The costs that are going up to the tariffs are going to the customers. And when we at Michigan Smart Trade Alliance did polling of Michigan voters, they understand it. They know that it's a tax on them. And I think the number one in the issue in the election, obviously, is going to be costs. Well, and that and the uncertainty of the trade policies and there have been back and forth in the courts, whether or not the tariffs that were initially put into place were legally applied. So we've gone through all these different. maturations of the trade policy. And then, of course, as you mentioned, the USMCA and now the renegotiating of that, it leaves these important sectors of our economy, particularly here in the state of Michigan, asking a lot of questions. Yeah, it does. I mean, to be honest, it's not a battle with President Trump. There's a lot of things he does very well, and he's using tariffs as one of his classic leverage plays. The outcome of it is just unpredictable and uncertain, and businesses have to make decisions every day, but they also have already made their plans for years. in advance. And so many Michigan businesses, even outside the auto industry, rely on what they'll refer to as inputs. But if you're a farmer, you're relying on fertilizer coming from Canada to fertilize your crops. Your equipment may have parts in your tractor or your combine or your harvesters that are coming from other places and suddenly that machinery becomes far more expensive or far more expensive to repair it. We have a new television add up right now. Not featuring me, that's for sure, but featuring the actual business leaders of Michigan people who are trying to make things work under this regime over the last year. And it's become very hard. So, you know, in an ad that we have out right now, we've got visit Detroit talking about how tourism from Canada is down 30%. That's a huge hit for the city of Detroit. But that extends outward. That's why we have the Michigan Restaurants and Lodging Association. They have great concerns about the impact, not only on tourism, but under USMCA, food going back and forth from Canada to Michigan through various stages is. purchase in mass quantities by our hotels, our restaurants, and fed not only to our visiting tourists, but to all of us when we go on vacation, the cost of those things are going up because of the blanket tariffs that keep being placed on those items. And so we want people to hear, we want decision makers to hear. When the U.S. Supreme Court made its decision to stop one of the earlier

formats of the tariffs that President Trump is using, they said specifically that Congress has great power to set tariff and trade policy. And what we're suggesting, what the businesses in Michigan are suggesting, they want their members of Congress to hear these stories, number one, understand what the effect is on Michigan businesses and industries, which is all of them. and incorporate that into what's going on here. We just want them to hear. I mean, plenty of our members voted for President Trump multiple times. But on this issue, they just disagree and they need to be heard. President Trump says terrorists are bringing manufacturing jobs back home. And many of the businesses in that campaign say uncertainty, uncertainty really is making it harder to invest and to hire. Can both these things be true at the same time? We live in a complicated world, Lloyd. And so in some ways, yes, I can see why GM Ford, the other auto manufacturers, they want to see tariffs on finished cars that are made in other countries by other foreign-owned companies. They want to see tariffs on those cars. They don't want it to be easy for imports to come in. Particularly, I think we mostly agree across the board that... You know, we don't want to see Chinese cars come in. Tariff policy can set a real important national security and economic security standpoint. That's for sure. The uncertainty part of on which day, which tariffs will be in place and which ones won't be or when they'll be invalidated by a court and when they won't be makes it really difficult for most companies to say, okay, fine, I'll just pick up plant A and move it over here into Michigan. If it were that easy, it would have already happened. But for someone like General Motors, we understand that they have. both the issue of the supply chain, which is deeply woven between Ontario and Michigan. They don't want to see tariffs there. But when it comes to foreign competition, they do. John Selleck, great stuff. Appreciate your insight. As always, we'll talk again soon. Thanks, guys. Yeah, you got it. The issue of tariffs has never, it's never been about necessarily, is this good or bad. Right. We know there are pros and cons to both, right? The reason that many presidents have not gone down this path, at least in my estimation, is because it's not an instant, it's not instant gratification. We live in instant gratification. When your phone dings, you want to see who's texting you. Exactly. When you have that Snickers bar, you want that sugar rush, right? This is a slow effect. And in the meantime, it hurts. It hurts small businesses. Yes. It hurts you when you're going to buy things. Could it be beneficial long term? Certainly. Absolutely it could. But in the meantime, it hurts. You've got to have that. And you've got to deal with it. High pain tolerance. High pain tolerance. Exactly. And the political acumen to do it because not all politicians are going to play the long game. But in the meantime, you've got businesses that have to pick up the pieces to that decision. Coming up on the other side, we're going to hear from Mike Rogers. He was with the president yesterday in Milford. So the president in town yesterday at the GM facility in Milford. And look, it was a dual purpose appearance. It was one certainly to highlight the economic agenda, to highlight some of the manufacturing moves that the president has made. And quite frankly, some of the pressure that he's put on some of these companies like GM to expand their operations here in the United States of America.

And it was also a way to rally up the troops, to whip up the base ahead of next week's primary votes. And one of those candidates that was there was Mike Rogers, who is running for U.S. Senate for Republicans and joins us this morning. It's good to have you back. It is good to be back. Good morning, Jen. It was a vibe last yesterday afternoon. The president was in his usual form. And did you feel that there was an energy in the room that is going to carry over across the state come Tuesday? Yes, not only in the room, but... This is what I think the pundits in Washington certainly don't understand. Our campaign with both us and some outside help have crossed one million doors knocked. So we have a, that's never been done in Michigan, by the way, and we did it, we crossed that number about two weeks ago, and we haven't stopped, by the way, and we won't stop. And so when you look at what's coming off of the doors, you saw the excitement in the room, you see two Democrat candidates who I'm not sure, I don't know what that thing was. Crazy, crazy train. So I think what you're going to see is common sense versus crazy. And we're from Michigan. This is going to be a common sense election about getting manufacturing back in the state. And what you saw yesterday was that energy about GM announcing they're bringing the truck back from Mexico. I mean, Michigan got hit harder than any other state. Now, in the quarter century that we've had two Democrat senators representing us in the United States Senate, we've lost 200. thousand manufacturing jobs and nobody in the senate decided to put the brakes on that this is about a renaissance here in michigan and that's what people are excited about work is coming back we're seeing even the small manufacturers are adding shifts or adding people they're getting new orders i mean and that's all about this reshoring effort And you don't really see it. You know, people, these small companies aren't, you know, running around and bragging about it. But I've talked to, I can't tell you how many over 100. And they're excited about what's happening. And that excitement was in that room. And you saw it with certainly the GM employees who were there and all of the folks who showed up to cheer on that agenda. You know, while President Trump spoke passionately about auto job growth and federal labor stats show that auto manufacturing employment has faced some recent headwinds and local utility rates and gas prices are climbing, how do you respond to critics and Democrats who argue that aggressive tariffs and trade policies are actually...

raising daily operation costs for Michigan businesses and family. Well, that's certainly what I hear from the Democrats, but think of this. The Democrats have run Lansing for better part of a decade. They have, by their votes, gave us the highest utility rates in the Midwest, about 17% higher than the national average. That was Democrats. That wasn't Donald Trump. They did it in Lansing. They also gave you, by the way, the highest auto insurance rates in the country. My brother-in-law just added his 16-year-old to their policy. They now pay for just those three, his wife and their son, $10,000 a year in auto insurance rates, and they can't get it any cheaper. And guess what? They have another 16-year-old driver coming up next year. I mean, it's unsustainable. And Democrats don't want to talk about that. And so, yeah, one of the things we have to do is point out what the Democrats have done to us and how we're going to get it fixed. If we don't fix these fundamental things, we won't take advantage of what Trump is doing around the country. There is a renaissance in manufacturing. Some of the biggest car plants, by the way, are being built outside of the state. Why? The Democrats have made it so uncompetitive here and so expensive here. So we've got to say, listen, this is a change election. They've had their chance. Better part of a decade, a quarter of a century, two Democrats, a quarter of a century, two Democrats. Back in Washington, D.C., they have made our lives harder. They've watched defense industrial-based work, leave our state. We used to build the main battle tank. That moved down to Lima, Ohio. Not like it went down to Alabama. And all the work that happens around building a big piece of equipment like that helps. a community in manufacturing and our two democrats senators just all watched it walk down the street and that's why i think there's energy in the room that's why we're finding energy on as i said over a million doors about people saying no no no i'm going to show up i'm voting i want to change here in michigan and one way to change that is for the first time in a quarter century sent a republican back who understands manufacturing who worked on this car assembly floor uh and uh punched the time clock I get how important these jobs are. That's where I think the Democrats are making them. I hear people out around the state and on all the doors we've hit, say, I don't trust Democrats on affordability. And you know what? I don't either. What did you make of the debate last night? I didn't see the whole thing, so bits and pieces. I thought, my God, if this is what we're doing to save our state and get it back on the right direction, to try to make sure we have ideas and solutions to get our kids reading again. We're 45th in the country to try to make sure our utility rates are down. Make sure your gas prices go down. I didn't see anything last night. It seemed to me two very unsurious campaigns to face the serious problems that Michigan has.

Well, you know, we're going to find out that after. Do you have a preference on who you'd like to face off against? I don't. There was a lot of press. I know the Stevens campaign kept trying to put out that we wanted to. That was all nonsense. They leaked the wrong thing. There was a story correction about it. They are saying anything and everything. I don't care who comes out of it. Think of this. They're both. supporting job killing ED mandates. They both want to raise your taxes. They both support boys and girls sports. They both turn their backs on law enforcement. And they want to let big government grab control of every part of your life. Both of them, one by voting records and one by vocal support for all of this. They want to tax your overtime. We have three million. Michigan families who have benefited from no tax on overtime, they want to tax your overtime. They want to tax your tips. I don't see a lot of difference in them other than style at this point. You know, and you're sailing through the August 4th primary on the polls on the Republican ticket and having this clear runway gives you a head start. So how are you using this time to reach, you know, the independent and the swing voters in places like Oakland and McComb County who might agree with you on energy, but maybe have some reservations about national politics? Yeah, well, I mean, I think what we've been, well, I know what we've been doing. We've been building, I think, the state's biggest ground game in history. And we started in December. And we had volunteers going door to door in December. Now that's commitment. That is definitely commitment in Michigan. And that's how we hit this huge number. of voter contacts at doors. And that's going to get bigger. Matter of fact, by the time we get to September, we'll have 200,000 doors a week. And by the way, that's not just Republicans. That's independence. We're talking to independence. We've got some digital ads up. It looks like we're not doing much on TV because the Democrats have. Think of this. 7,000 points a week. You know, and normally you would have in a campaign like this about 1,000 to 2,000, one particular candidate has 7,000 points a week on TV. I've never seen anything quite like it, $60 billion in a, or excuse me, million dollars in a primary. So what we're doing is out actually talking to people. I've traveled the state. We meet with independent groups. We're spending a lot of time in conversations. all across the state. We have solutions on housing. We have solutions on our kids can't reading and not reading in the fourth grade. We have solutions for energy prices to get prices down and put in shop back in school so that we have a next generation of really successful skilled trades coming out so that we can continue to build in high-end manufacturing. We actually have solutions. We're talking about those solutions, and what we're finding is independence.

are very attracted to our message. Well, Andrew, putting Christie in your ads. So that's a good move. Well, that is the best thing ever. Matter of fact, nobody wants to talk to me anymore. They just want to talk to Christy. She really is a rock star. She's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Well, we appreciate your time. I'm very lucky. Yes, for sure. We appreciate your time. Thank you. We'll talk again very soon. I hope so. Rogers for Senate.com. Come on and join the fight. Love to have you. You got it. That's Mike Rogers. We'll take a break. More coming up next on J.R. Morning. So Schoolcraft College, they're doing some unbelievable stuff. And when you talk about an agreement that brings about the trades in a way that we haven't really seen in quite some time. I mean. You talk a lot about it. Yes, I talk to them all the time and the trades are really big and, you know, they're going into high schools and colleges and talking to young people because giving them an opportunity, giving them something different because not everybody, you know, wants to go to college, but, you know, now you can and you can, you know, get an apprenticeship and it's a big deal. You have a great life. Have a great life. And again, like we're seeing more and more young people. choose this career path. Yes. Because there are so many, you look at the tech world and so many things are changing on that front, but you're still going to need people to build. To build. And to electricity. To fix and all of that. Yes. Yeah. So it's very interesting. Dr. Bob Ledley is the chief workforce and economic development offers are at Schoolcraft College. And he joins us this morning to talk about this new program. Doc, good to have you. Good morning. Let's talk a little bit about this agreement for community colleges, this contingent of community colleges coming together for a masonry trades program. Really, this is a strong effort that we've had for years, really to look at higher learning credit, the people that have workforce experience. And clearly, the model is set up so that students, that they go through a journey book for partnership program. These are really rigorous programs. You know, four years of programs. training not just on the job, but also classroom. So we're getting the book running and be on the job training. So part of that leads to what we consider. Hold on for me one second. We're having a bit of a connection problem. I want to get this information out there. So we're going to touch base with him and make sure that we've got him set up properly. But again, it's this contingent of groups that are coming together, a contingent of community colleges working towards these apprenticeship programs. for people, giving them the opportunity. And I think the way this does it now, it kind of bridges the gap because, you know, for a long time, people often view college and the skilled trades. It's two separate paths. But, you know, I think this program kind of bridges that gap, I would believe. And we do have Dr. Rob Lidley back. Doc, we got you? Yes. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Yeah, I apologize. No, no, no. You sound great. Yeah, go ahead.

You hit it spot on Lloyd. I think that, you know, it used to be, you know, people would always say and always got mad when people said that college isn't for everyone. But I think this gives opportunity for students to go through apprenticeship program, get that trades professional training. In addition, get the college credits that they've learned it. So they've earned it. I've heard that from colleagues that are Grand Valley. State University, we met with them yesterday, and they had that nice little mantra of if you earned it, if you learned it, you earned it. And so we're trying to apply that across the board for the skill trades, and particularly in the construction traits for this particular project. How does this change the conversation for somebody considering a career in the skilled trades? I mean, does it send the message that becoming a bricklayer or a mason is not an alternative to higher education, but actually part of it? I think it's a big plus. I think students sometimes shy away from that, particularly in high school, you know, where the traits and the career tech programs have kind of gone away. So I think there's going to be more encouragement to head in that direction because you can do both. There's no stigma to doing that. Yeah. And you're blending this model. So you're giving apprentices the same access to your resources that they might not normally have. Right. And so you're blending. these two worlds together in a way that I don't know that we really necessarily seen before, but giving them access to those resources might then open up another avenue for them, might open their eyes to another direction. Absolutely. It's a different on-ramp. I think providing students tutoring, advice, student wellness, all those things that are big concerns in construction industry and trades, I think you're going to really help step them up a little bit and also give them opportunity for advancement in their program. So not only will they just be bricklayers, they may have opportunities to be managers, supervisors, maybe own their own business. It just kind of lays the foundation for growth. And, you know, doctor, the one thing that kind of caught my attention is this dual enrollment opportunity for high school students. I mean, does that mean that a student could actually graduate school with a diploma, complete an apprenticeship, and then, you know, already be on the path toward an associate's degree? That's what we're going to be working toward. We already have programs at SchoolCraft where they can go 13 years, for example, in computer science, get an associate's degree, and they're on their way. They basically have credits that are free. So we work pretty hard to have programs in computer science, business and just general associate's degree. So we're pretty proud of that and hope that more people take advantage of that. We're hoping that we can also apply it to this program as well. And, you know, Doc, Michigan, really the entire country, they continue to face this shortage of skilled trade workers. How much of an impact could this program have on closing that workforce gap? I'm sure it could.

Well, particularly for the masonry group, so we're working with the local bricklayers union and Ally craft workers, and they right now have about 3,500 members, and they're expecting 675 new journey workers are going to be needed in the next five years. So we're hoping to train about 200 a year with the training program that we have and also the building that we're proposing to build on our campus. So we're proposing a 40,000 square foot building. for training for pre-apprenticeship training in all construction trades and then apprenticeship training in masonry and specific and if there's a young person dog or maybe even an adult looking for a career change listening this morning what's your message to them about the opportunities this partnership creates and why now might be the perfect time to consider a career in the skilled trades Well, I think there's a need and there's certainly an opportunity here that's rather unique. You know, you don't have to pick one or the other. If you enjoy the construction trades, and I think there's a lot of people out there that do. This is a great profession. You know, you jump in as a journey worker apprentice and you start making $40 an hour plus benefits, you know, it's over $80,000 a year. So you're working while you learn and, you know, earning a good income and, you know, accumulating benefits as you go. Interesting stuff. Really a new way of going about this. Absolutely. I think it's very cool what you guys are doing at schoolcraft. Dr. Robert Ledley, thank you so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. And keep us up to date as this program expands. We will. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Big deal. Fascinating. It is. Yeah. Again, I think we were just talking about it this morning. It's like I wish I were, you know, this curious in high school. Yeah. Right? I was not this way. I wasn't curious about everything then. It was a party for me. All my friends were there. I wasn't. All this learning didn't matter to me. No, I deal with that later. We're going to get drunk before the game. We're going to get drunk during the game. And then we get drunk after the game. I will not self-incriminate. How dare you put me into that position. You plead the fifth. How dare you put me in that position? Never. Never did that happen. You didn't say that. You went. I just said it was a party. Okay. Eight o'clock hour coming up. Chair morning. 8 o'clock hour, good to have you here on J.R. Morning, the president in town yesterday. He says that he's the first president to visit the GM Proving Grounds as a sitting president. I'm honored to be the first sitting president to visit one of the most storied places in the history of American auto making, and that's the world famous General Motors Proving Ground. Cool, a little feather in the cat for GM there. That's nice. And the president talked a lot about the economic policies, talked about the tariffs, talked about how the tariffs on foreign-made vehicles or from vehicles that weren't built in the United States, how that has changed automotive sales, particularly in the truck segment. And he touted that. He talked a lot about the tariff policy at large and bringing manufacturing back to places like Michigan.

bringing back manufacturing to the United States. It was obviously a major focus for him yesterday. And also we had a debate yesterday. Yeah. What did you think about that, sir? I thought it was status quo. And for those who are in the know, who listen to us or, you know, really watch, you know, a lot. television, listen to radio, read newspapers, other magazines, all that time. I think those people who watched probably didn't learn too much more than they already knew. I think... Probably mostly the folks who are just checking in kind of, just kind of saying, okay, what's going on here? Because I've been kind of doing other things, vacationing, not really paying attention to join the summer. And I haven't really thought about it, I think, for those. And those who are on the fence, you know, the independents who maybe don't know yet, I think it was more for them. It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out next Tuesday. Because, you know, again, the... These are going to be Democratic primary voters. that are going to be weighing in on this. Yes. That are going to be putting their finger on the scale. Now, anybody can vote, obviously. You can vote however you want. But the realities are, these are going to be people who are Democratic voters, maybe some independence as well. Yeah. But these are going to be, these two candidates in Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed are courting one side of the aisle right now. That's what the primary is. Once you get into the general, when you go head to head up against Mike Rogers, that's a different story. But right now, I mean, these two candidates are really far apart. They are. They are not along ideological lines. They may be in the same wing of the party or the same side of the aisle, but they're not necessarily aligned on a lot of issues. Do you think, though, that also that the Democrats who will be voting in the election next week are thinking further than just, I don't know, are they thinking? Who will be the best, who is the best person to take on Mike Rogers? Who could win against Mike Rogers between those two? Are they thinking about that? I'll be honest with you. I don't think so. Okay. I don't think so. I actually don't think so. I don't think so in almost any primary. Republicans included. Okay. I don't think so. You don't think they're thinking that far down. I don't think so. Because that would require, I mean, that's more foresight. That's even. That's like going to a buffet. Okay. And going, okay, well, hold on. There's a million things to choose from. But I really do want the prime rib. Right? Mm-hmm. But you're going to have 10 other things before you get to the prime rib. Okay. You know that's actually what you want. Yeah.

But you're going to go through the rest of the line. It feels like that's what it is here. You know ultimately you want to win the election. The prime rib is winning the election. Yes. But you're going to have the chicken strips and you're going to have the – Yeah, you're going to have all the other stuff too. But at the end of the day, knowing what you want and – being confident in, look, I may not agree with this person completely, but I know that this person is going to have a better opportunity to win, and I'll be able to stomach some of their shortcomings in my mind. Okay. You don't think they're thinking like that. I don't think most people feel like that. I don't think most people think like that. Some maybe do. Yeah. But I don't think a vast majority. Not a big number of people. No. No. And again, I thought. The debate was exactly what we expected it to be. It's their final push to get people to vote for them. On the Democratic side. Yeah. I don't know that they have an incredible amount of foresight. Finally, it has opened. It opened at noon yesterday, and I'm talking about the Gordy Howe International Bridge, and Senator Gary Peters. He led the way, becoming the first person to ride across the new Detroit-Windserspan on a motorcycle. You know, he's a motorcycle guy. That doesn't surprise me. Governor Gretchen Whitmer followed close behind, crossing into Canada, behind the wheel of a Michigan-made Blackford Mustang. convertible. Well, you know what? I haven't driven in a number of years. So the fact that I got a chance to do this this morning was was really fun for me personally. I love driving a car like a Mustang and getting to see this. You know, there's so much symbolism about this bridge and just even the safety aspects of it that are shaped like hockey sticks in honor of Gordy Howe is really something that's very cool. She praised the multi-billion dollar project calling the cable stage span and engineering marvel in a symbol. of longstanding partnership jointly owned by Michigan and Canada. The bridge is already the largest trade crossing in North America. It features six travel lanes, multi-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians and dozens of new inspection booths to keep international traffic moving. Good news. Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie has made a new plea. I'm asking you, begging you to do the right thing now. Make the right choice. Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing. Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed. We have done our part, and we will never stop looking for her. Nancy Guthrie still has not been found. She went missing January 31st and still has not been found. Wow. Yeah, sad story. But.

As she says, the family won't stop. No, and, you know, I get it. That's mom, and you're going to continue as long as it takes. Detroit police cracking down on illegal street racing and drifting, sending a strong warning that these gatherings are crimes, not harmless entertainment. And during the enforcement operation that took place on Sunday at Milwaukee and Weatherby, officers investigated 65 vehicles, 92 people, and pounded nine vehicles, issued 53 ordinance violations, recovered a firearm. And investigated one fleeing and eluding incident. Police say these meetups often lead to dangerous drifting and drag racing, block intersections, late night disruptions that put residents at risk. Officials also warn that spectators can face consequences as well, including vehicle forfeiture. Investigators say they've already identified the driver who fled the scene and are actively searching for that person. And that's another thing. You know, you know, a guy flees the scene. You don't have to chase him. You look at his plate. And you just, you know, beat him at the house when he gets there. Then nobody gets hurt. Right. Tigers lost yesterday, 8 to 5 against the Orioles down at Comerica Park. That's three Ls in a row, not ideal as we get towards the trade deadline. But they get another shot at it tonight, 640 first pitch down at Comerica Park. 8 to 5 was the score yesterday, but the squirrel. That was the highlight. That was the highlight. The squirrel was giving the grounds crew a run for their money. The chase for the squirrel is on, and the squirrel is in the corner, and the squirrel is still eluding an entire horde of grounds crew members. And the squirrel is free once again. Hemmed in? No, I won't be hemmed in. I have freedom on my mind. Trying to go between the legs and eventually he gets away again and hops through the towel. And hops through another towel. Commentating was the best. I mean, is there anybody better? No. Nobody. Is there anybody on planet Earth better? No. The squirrel may be part of the Terrick Scoobble trade. He's got a lot of speed. Got a lot of speed. I'd love to see that speed on the base paths. Wow. And, I mean, he runs through people's legs. He avoids contact. It's great. It's unbelievable. Be a nice running back. The best part is Bill Miller came on after they caught the squirrel. And he goes, just want to thank the tiger's ground crew. Thank you very much. Give him a round of applause. They deserve it. And the crowd booed Bill Miller. Really? They deserved it, though, man. I mean, it took all of them, but that squirrel, man. It would be a good running back. I love it. I love it. Coming up on the other side, Linda McMahon joins the show, the Secretary of Education. They've launched a new probe into Ann Arbor Public Schools. We'll tell you about it. Coming up, it's chair morning. Michigan summers mean outdoor adventure and fun, but high temperatures, well, they shouldn't break your budget. Count on consumers energy to help you make the most of this season in your budget with tips and ways to save. Making small changes like shifting some energy used to the morning or evening, raising your thermostat a couple of degrees, doing laundry at night or on the weekends. That can all help you lower your bill while keeping your home comfortable. Discover more ways to beat the heat at consumersenergy.com slash summer. So the U.S. Department of Education has launched a new effort focused on parental rights and enforcement.

Certainly reflects what the administration's position is that parents should have greater access to information about their children's education and their well-being. And this initiative builds on other actions at the federal level aimed at ensuring that school distance districts comply with the Family Education Ripes and Privacy Act, FERPA. And that gives parents access to educational records. And a school district right here in the state of Michigan in Arbor is being looked at through this DOE probe. Linda McMahon is the Secretary of Education and joins us this morning. Madam Secretary, it's great to have you back. Thanks very much. It's good to be back with you this morning. Well, let's talk a little bit about first why the probe, why go through this new effort, and what specifically in Arbor drew the attention. Well, I can tell you, and thanks so much, you know, for having me on this morning. What we found out in Ann Arbor, and this was a complaint, you know, that came in through our student privacy policy office, and we had a school district. that actually has policies there in Ann Arbor, that a school staff must hide the student's transgender status from their parents in the name of privacy. And that's just ludicrous because under the federal purple law, as you just mentioned. Parents have the right to those records, parents and students. Schools are the custodians of those records, but parents and students are the ones that have the rights to come in and review those records at any time. And they're the only ones that have the right to make changes in those records. And so for the school to be told to intentionally keep this information from parents is absolutely... Not only it's against the law to do that. I know critics of these kinds of investigations, Madam Secretary, argue that schools are often, you know, they're trying to protect vulnerable students and create safe learning environments. How do you respond to concerns that increased federal scrutiny could make educators hesitant to support students in difficult situations? Well, if you think about this, I mean, it's common sense. You can't dispense Tylenol at a school to a student without having permission from their parents. And mostly, most of the time, that is written permission from parents that schools can dispense that, you know, any kind of medicine like that. to an issue that is so incredibly sensitive to a child's development, like transitioning from one gender to another, that a school is saying that they must withhold those records and not make parents aware of them. It defies common sense, but it's also against the law, and the Department of Education will investigate, and if our findings are that, in fact,

That is what's happening. We'll work with the Department of Justice to bring action. So those schools can risk not only civil lawsuits, but they can also risk defunding from the federal government. And like I said, you have critics, but then on the other hand, you've got a lot of parents who say they feel they've been shut out of important decisions involving their children's education and well-being. Do you believe this is an isolated issue or part of a larger trend? Well, what we are finding is that it's, you know, these things are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the abuse of trust that's happening in schools. And we are just becoming more aware of it. And more parents really are raising these issues and coming to the Department of Education or to the Department of Justice, also bringing it to the attention of local school boards, et cetera. So I just think it's incredibly important for parents to know their rights. You know, and Sunday kicked off National Parents Day, and so we're extending it in the Department of Education National Parents Week, and we are bringing some focus just like through this program this morning. So thank you for the opportunity of making parents aware that they do have the ultimate rights. Children don't belong to the government. They belong to parents. Yeah, and I was going to ask, how, I think you said this tip came in from a parent. How. much do you rely on those parental tips? I have to imagine it would be very difficult from a DOE perspective to find these isolated incidents, but how much do you rely on those tips from parents to come in in order to find instances like this? Well, it's pretty, excuse me, it's pretty significant because we are not monitors in all the schools across the country. Clearly, that's not the role of the Department of Education, but our role is. to make sure that those policies are being followed. And so we are always encouraging parents understand your rights as a parent to go into a school and demand to see the records, and if they're withheld from you, or you don't find that they are in compliance with what your child is telling you. And, you know, we've had an incident that wasn't in Ann Arbor, but it was in another state of where the parents actually found out. that their child was being transgender through an email that came to them about their female daughter and was referred to all through the memo as he or him. And so these are just things that parents have to be aware of and alert to. Parents are the best advocates for their children, and they really must be involved in what's going on in their schools because schools are taking on roles that they never used to have before. And it is just not right to assume that they are the ones who have the responsibility for the child and not the parents. Do you have the manpower at the department to...

track down all of these tips that come in? We certainly do investigate them, and then we work with the Department of Justice as well. And so we are absolutely investigating all the ones that come in. Interesting. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, thank you for your time this morning. We know you've got to run, but we appreciate your carving out a couple of minutes for us this morning. And we'll continue to follow this and keep us up to date on it, too, please. Thank you so much. Thank you for the time. Yeah, you got it. I mean, listen, I would want to know. I would want to know something like that was happening. Just like she said, you know, even with medication, you've got to get permission from the parents' medication. Well, I think at the end of the day, anything that my kid is doing in school, I want to be alerted to. Absolutely. And it doesn't even have to be about transgender issues. I mean about anything. Anything. I mean, you know, it's funny. There's been a couple instances where we'll get a call like, Henry bumped his head today. He fell off the chair. He's fine, but just wanted to give you a heads up. And it's like, I remember thinking a couple of times, why didn't we need to know that? If he's fine, he'll come home and tell us he fell off the chair. Yeah. But on the flip side, I'm happy they make the call. Absolutely. Because, I mean, you know, he said he's fine, but it could turn into something else, but at least you know about it. At least... You're going to say, well, come on somebody didn't call me. Right, because all of a sudden, if he comes home and he's like, my name's Steve, and you're like, oh, we got a problem here. What happened at school today? Right. All of a sudden, he thinks he's somebody else. This is a problem. You know what I mean? Like, at least that way you know what happened. What happened. So I think. I'm a big proponent of parents being incredibly involved in what their kids are doing in schools, whether that's making sure that you're doing the due diligence to sit home with them at night and doing their homework or reading a book or whatever it is or getting information from your school, from your teachers, from the administration to make sure that things are going, you know, things are going in the right direction. Absolutely. So I'm a big proponent of that. And if there's laws being broken, I mean, that's a whole other. Well, no, that's a whole different. All their different ball of wax. Coming up on the other side, the Stevens-Elsied debate was last night. We'll talk to Craig Mogger. After Detroit News, it's next on Jair morning. Well, the Gordy Howe International Bridge is officially opened. The first vehicles from Michigan have crossed, and it feels like after decades, an official sigh of relief because it did open even a little earlier yesterday than we expected probably around 1030. And a lot of years of construction, almost a decade of construction, lots of years of planning by both the United States and the Canadian governments.

And it's open. Keith Mathini is the environmental reporter at the Detroit Free Press and joins us. Keith, good morning. It's good to have you. Good morning. So now that we're officially here, we've officially crossed the finish line. What should people know before they travel across the new Gordyhow Bridge? Well, like any other international border crossing, you need to have the proper ID. That's kind of step one. That would be a U.S. passport or I guess passports from other countries that Canada will accept, a passport card, the nexus card, which you can get from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or the enhanced driver's license that Michigan and a few other states issue. for a crossing into Canada. It's important to note that a real ID, those are the IDs that have got the gold circle on it with the star or the shape of Michigan with the star. That allows you to fly domestically that does not count as crossing into Canada. You need a special enhanced driver's license. It has a little American flag on it and it literally says enhanced driver's license. I think you pay. something like $30 extra for that when you get your license. So one of those types of IDs are necessary for the trip. Keith, let's talk about the cost. How do the tolls compare to the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor Tunnel, and are there ways for frequent travelers to save money? Yeah, actually, among the things that people are kind of enjoying about the new crossing here is it's really affordable compared to the others at the moment, at least. One way for a personal vehicle is 575 U.S. A personal vehicle with a trailer is $1150. Then you get into, you know, the commercial trucks and buses and then it's a per axle fee for them. But, you know, last I knew at the Ambassador Bridge, I think it was $10 U.S. to cross. So $5.75 is significantly less. They have a prepay program called Breakaway where you can get one of those RFID stickers on your window. and pass right through at least the toll portion. Obviously, you've got to be inspected because it's an international crossing. But, yeah, you can prepay, and I think you can get up to four vehicles on one account. So for a lot of people who cross frequently, that's going to be convenient. When can we expect walkers and bikers to start making their way across? So that is slated to open 8 a.m. next Wednesday, August 5th. So visitors can access the U.S. bike and pedestrian entrance near Delray Park around Radamacher Street and West Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.

And the best part of, of course, as we've been talking about, the biker and walker and jogger crossing is free. There is no toll for that. You, of course, still need the proper ID. You know, so with the Ambassador Bridge now, the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, and now the Gordy Howe Bridge, how do you see the traffic patterns changing over the next year or so? I mean, will each crossing develop its own kind of niche? There's been a lot of study over the last few years on what they expect, and they don't expect, like, dramatic drop-offs at the Ambassador Bridge or the tunnel, like perhaps a nominal percentage drop as people are checking out the new bridge. But I think you're right, ultimately. Everybody's going to kind of find their convenient way to do it. And just having another major international crossing there at, you know, one of the busiest international crossings in the continent, it's going to be nothing but a benefit. And I know this, I don't know if this is within your scope, but we've heard about this new deal that was negotiated on some of those toll fees. You talk about how much cheaper it is. But is there is there any indication on where we stand on that? Because Mark Carney in Canada says that that's not going to happen this 50-50 split on toll fees. Has there been any clarity? If there has been, I'm not aware of it. That whole piece has been kind of on the fly the last few weeks and hasn't exactly been crystal clear for the public who's trying to make sense of it. So I guess we're in sort of wait and see mode on any changes that are coming. It just seemed like everything moves smoothly and efficiently on opening day. And we'll see where it goes from there. I know one of the biggest selling points is the direct freeway-to-freeway connection. How much easier is it going to be, Keith, going, you know, going to make life for commuters and especially the commercial truck traffic having that freeway to freeway connection? Sure, they did a really significant investment in creating two new massive ports. The U.S. port site, I think, has 36 inspection lanes and booths, which makes it the largest land port on the U.S. Canadian border anywhere. And they created an interchange on I-75, something like... 1.8 miles long. That's going to be, especially for the commercial traffic, which, you know, it's going to get so much of that. It's going to make it really easy. It's highway to highway on both sides of the bridge. Interesting stuff. Good news that it's open. And I don't know, we can't wait to cross it. I'm excited. Me too, man. To get over it. Keith and Thini at the Free Press. Thank you. We appreciate it.

You back. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, I can't wait. You know, the walkers and the bicyclists. I know. It's very. It's very cool. By the way, Savannah Guthrie has released a new video on social media. Here she is saying it's never too late to do the right thing. I'm asking you, begging you to do the right thing now. Make the right choice. Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing. Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed. We have done our part, and we will never stop looking for her. It's heartbreaking. It is. But she is very steadfast in finding her mother as is her siblings. Continue to watch. It's going to do it for us. Kevin Eaton. I'll talk coming to Max. See you.