Electric vehicle maker Rivian confirmed its plans to build a $5 billion assembly plant and battery factory in Georgia, which Governor Brian Kemp called the largest single economic development project in the state’s history. Rivian plans to employ 7,500 workers at its factory, a jobs tally state officials have said could grow to 10,000. The plant will be built about an hour east of Atlanta, with construction slated to begin next summer and production at the factory expected to begin in 2024. Georgia beat out Texas and several other states for the factory. While Rivian might be well-financed and valued highly by Wall Street, the company faces several challenges to meet its goals. The company first must deliver quality vehicles, build its capacity to services the vehicles it sells and fend off EV competition from rivals such as Tesla, GM, Ford and Volkswagen, said John C. Taylor, a professor of supply chain management at Wayne State University. “Whether Rivian will get a significant share of (the future EV market), the jury is still out,” Taylor said.  

Santa made a recent visit to Detroit to spread holiday cheer and help encourage community members to get vaccinated. A Wayne Health Mobile Unit provided COVID-19 vaccines, as well as flu shots and other screenings, at the pop-up clinic at Saunders Memorial A.M.E. Church. The event also featured ice sculptures and food.  

By Hani Barghouthi  Gun violence survivors, educators and students gathered on Sunday at a community healing event in downtown Oxford. The event, which was focused on offering mental health resources and resources to the Oxford community and others who were affected by the shooting, was organized by the Michigan chapter of March for Our Lives, a youth-led organization dedicated to gun violence prevention, and the Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan, a youth-led social and economic justice organization. Some the support comes from the Mental Health and Wellness Center and the Family and Mental Wellness Lab at Wayne State University, which has been providing in-person and telehealth therapeutic services to people in Metro Detroit who have been affected by the Oxford High shooting. “The kids we’ve spoken to are having a very wide range of feelings, and their feelings are changing all the time,” said Dr. Erika Bockneck, a professor of educational psychology at Wayne State University. “They’re experiencing grief and loss, then the next day they might be feeling really angry. And then there are some days where they’re kids, and I think they’re just not sure what to feel.” In addition to direct counseling, Bocknek and other counselors at the center are working with the Mala Child and Family Institute in Plymouth to develop a free text service where they send out messages of support and information about trauma response.  

In 2011, Michigan implemented a tough new teacher evaluation system in which educators’ annual job reviews were based partly on the standardized test scores of their students. The plan seemed straight-forward: Reward good teachers, weed out bad ones and Michigan’s moribund learning would improve. A decade later, that experiment is generally considered a failure by educators, policymakers and researchers, and there’s an effort now to change the state’s teacher evaluation system, or at least pause it, until schools return to normal after the pandemic. Before the reform, determining which teachers were superstars was nearly impossible, because virtually all teachers were rated as effective. The teacher accountability measures were seen as a way to allow schools – and families – to distinguish great teachers from the average ones. “It was seen as a potential reform that could make a big difference and improve equitable outcomes,” said Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership at Wayne State University. “It was bipartisan, and had broad support from the education advocacy community.”  

Poco Kernsmith, a professor in Wayne State University’s School of Social Work, conducts research around sexual violence prevention and shares her view on the nature and prevalence of female sexual abusers as the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell continues for her alleged role in the sexual abuse and trafficking of young girls with Jeffrey Epstein. Kernsmith says that crime statistics show that the majority of sexual abusers are male, but that national surveys of victimization show rates of female perpetration are six to ten times higher than reports to law enforcement would indicate. Arrest and conviction rates likely underrepresent the number of female sex offenders, because those who have been assaulted by a woman are less likely to report the abuse, and when abuse is reported, women are less likely to be arrested and convicted. When women are accused of sexual offenses, they are frequently accused of participating in abuse with a male co-offender, like the case involving Maxwell and Epstein.

Dr. Sarah Kiperman, assistant professor of educational psychology and a child psychologist at Beaumont Health, shares advice on how families can help children deal with trauma and talk about tragedies such as the Oxford High School shooting. “The first thing, and the easiest thing, we can do is check in with them – ask your kids directly how they’re doing and if they want to talk about anything…When we do notice changes in their behavior, their appearance or how they’re eating and sleeping – those are things to be looking out for.” 

As Congress seeks solutions to a supply chain crisis that’s keeping shelves empty and consumers frustrated this holiday season, one suggestion keeps recurring: Address the trucker shortage. The American Trucking Association says there’s a need to fill 80,000 trucker jobs to satisfy America’s demand to move freight. The association asserts the jobs pay well, but that there have not been enough quality candidates. That theory stands in stark contrast to the views of an organization representing independent drivers, as well as those of at least four academics who study the industry, who say there isn’t really a shortage at all. Michael Belzer, a professor of economics at Wayne State University, said the issue is a direct outgrowth of the 1980 decision to deregulate interstate trucking. He said deregulation and the resulting collapse of Teamster representation of most truckers led to declining wages and poor job conditions that have effectively pushed drivers out of the industry. “It’s true, they can’t get drivers,” he said. “That’s not a shortage. If you don’t pay minimum wage, you shouldn’t be shocked that you can’t hire drivers.”  

A federal corruption probe into the United Auto Workers has led to an overhaul of the union’s elections, potentially bringing an end to a more than 70-year leadership dynasty under which recent leaders accepted bribes and embezzled millions in members’ dues and fees. UAW members and retirees voted to change the union’s process of electing leaders from a weight, delegate-based system to a direct, or “one member, one vote,” election, according to preliminary results published be a court-appointed UAW monitor. Both the monitor and vote, which still needs to be certified, were results of a settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and union to end a corruption investigation that sent 15 people to prison, including two recent UAW presidents and three Fiat Chrysler executives. Officials say it’s unclear how the new voting system will impact companies with workers represented by the UAW, specifically the Detroit automakers. The impact of the new election system on UAW members as well as companies depends on how the new process is implemented, according to Frank Goeddeke, a senior lecturer in management at Wayne State University. “The devil is always in the details, so that can affect how this is going to play out,” he said. “I do think that with the one member, one vote, that the officers will be more cognizant of how the membership is going to feel about certain things that they do.”  

Dr. Arash Javanbakht, a psychiatrist and director of the Stress, Trauma and Anxiety Research clinic at Wayne State University, and Stephanie Hartwell, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State, spoke to the Detroit Free Press in the tragic wake of the Oxford High School shooting. Dr. Javanbakht and others stressed It is essential, after a school shooting, that parents and other adults control their emotions around their children to restore a feeling of calm and safety and limit anxiety. "In general, children, especially younger ones, do not have a good ability of threat detection or appraising the level of the danger. The most important thing is to control our own fear or negative emotions around kids — all kids," said Javanbakht. "Parents must show they're in control. For parents to create an atmosphere of safety is very important." Dean Hartwell, who is a medical sociologist, has researched gun violence. On Tuesday, her daughter texted news of the shooting to her. "My kids were 8 and 5 when the Sandy Hook school shooting happened. And that was first graders. I was completely traumatized. It changes your perception of how safe the world is. So you start to question everything."

As the investigation continues and those involved process what happened, most everyone else must grapple with another difficult task: How should we talk to children about school shootings, especially when they take place in our community? Dr. Tehmina Shakir, a clinical child psychiatrist with Wayne State Health, says that parents and caregivers should approach the difficult subject in different ways depending on the child’s age. She says that children respond differently to traumatic events, especially events like the Oxford High School shooting. For instance, Dr. Shakir says that younger, elementary-aged children may respond to traumatic events by becoming clingy and anxious, and/or they may regress and have trouble sleeping or eating properly.

Late Monday night, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release that the newly discovered COVID-19 omicron variant has not yet been detected in Michigan, however the department is now actively monitoring for it. Doctors in metro Detroit say when it's here, it will be known. “It is not going to be a huge challenge to discover this variant," said Dr. Teena Chopra, the director of the Center for Emerging and Infectious Diseases at Wayne State University. "When we see it, we will know it right away.” The center is sending in samples and monitoring for signs of omicron in metro Detroit.

Dr. Teena Chopra, director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at Detroit Medical Center and the director of the Center for Emerging and Infectious Diseases at Wayne State University, discusses the omicron variant and warns early evidence isn't enough to say the variant isn't as deadly. "We still need to look at real world data on severity, because most of the cases in South Africa were among young people," Chopra said. "We need to wait a few weeks for clinical data. I'm not yet comfortable saying it's less dangerous." Chopra expects better data on the dangers of the variant to emerge from South Africa next week.

The multi-billion-dollar commitments of automakers and their suppliers to an electric vehicle future has spurred a battery-powered gold rush in Southeast Michigan. Vehicles with a battery core as opposed to an internal combustion engine require a new kind of supply base and pose a unique set of challenges, from combustibility and safety issues to longevity and range concerns. The supplier with a solution stands to cash in on the industry's new direction. Many are hoping to seize on the opportunity by expanding their scope of business and placing big bets on products and services. Automakers are poised to spend more than $300 billion to shift production to EVs over the next five years, according to consulting firm AlixPartners LP. General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV have said they aim for up to 50 percent of new car sales to be EVs by 2030. "You can always look at any disruption as an opportunity, and now is really a good time for a small supplier startup and also nontraditional companies usually outside the supply chain to enter into the game," said Tingting Yan, professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University. "All the OEMs and big tier ones, they are forced to think about how they need to restructure their existing supply base." 

Fresh Prescription, or Fresh Rx, is a student-run organization at Wayne State University's School of Medicine that provides participants, specifically Detroit residents with chronic health conditions, with a free “prescription” to purchase food at markets or have fruits and vegetables delivered to their homes. The medical students are on a mission to deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to the front doors of food-insecure children and adults in Detroit. “I have learned many things running this program,” said Ethan Firestone, medical student and co-founder of Fresh Prescription. “The program has given me invaluable experience working with underserved members of our community and helped teach me how to be more culturally aware in my medical care.”

For a long time, Melissa Chapman didn’t feel the law was a viable career path. How wrong she was. While studying psychology and biology in undergrad at the Florida Institute of Technology, she was shocked to find how much she enjoyed a few introductory law classes. And during her master’s program in higher education at Eastern Michigan University, she worked part time in education — a field she viewed as a long-term career — while also working part time at the Dobrusin Law Firm in Pontiac, first as an intellectual property legal assistant and then as an IP law clerk. “I quickly found myself enjoying the work at the law firm more and more,” she said. “I decided to continue working at the law firm after my master’s program to gain more exposure to the field and make sure I was confident in pursuing a law degree before investing in it.” Now in her final year at Wayne Law with graduation planned for December, Chapman has always had an interest in different sciences and technology.  “As a child I wanted to be a marine biologist and, in high school, I found myself fascinated with how things worked. After years of not being sure what I wanted my career to look like, it all clicked when I realized I could pursue a career in law that also dealt with technology and learning how things worked.” Chapman particularly appreciates the Wayne Law community.  “At every job and externship during law school, at least one attorney was a Wayne alum who went above and beyond to provide experiences and help me network with other professionals in the legal community,” she said. 

When it comes to ensuring there is enough inventory for customers this holiday season, Genuine Toy Co. owner Elle Dare is hoping for the best. Shipping and supply chain issues give her no choice. "Even if I did want to get something the toy companies are so far behind that it'd be next to impossible," she said. Dare, who has owned and operated the downtown Plymouth retailer for 12 years, said that what customers see is what they'll get. Just part of an order placed in January for items coming from China had arrived. Fortunately for Dare, she doesn't incur any costs until her orders are delivered, and she can cancel at any time. Small businesses are at a huge disadvantage compared to larger competitors in terms of access to products and services, according to Hakan Yildiz, associate professor of global supply chain management for the Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business. Because of the shortage of products and logistics capacity, suppliers and logistics service providers will naturally have to offer existing capacity to their largest customers, Yildiz said. "... small businesses are at the mercy of the spot market for access to logistics services, whereas the large shippers would have better rates through contractual agreements," he said. "Despite these disadvantages, small businesses can use their flexibility, creativity, and proximity to customers as advantages." Yildiz said small business owners can use creativity and long-standing, intimate relationships with customers to test alternatives. Existing customers are a small business' biggest advantage as the world battles shipping issues, he said. “Those customers would very much like the small businesses they've been shopping with for a long time to succeed," Yildiz said. "Especially in the context of the holiday season, as consumers will be getting anxious to get their hands on gifts and other holiday items, and close proximity and direct communication from small business owners may go a long way."

The Wayne State University Dean of Students Office in Detroit has partnered with Share Detroit, a community engagement conduit offering simple ways for neighbors, nonprofits, and businesses to come together and strengthen the community. “We’ve had more students than ever coming to the Dean of Students Office seeking these kinds of opportunities,” says Heather Marks, associate director of student life marketing at Wayne State. “We’re excited to have a new way of directly connecting students to the Detroit community.” Share Detroit seeks to connect Detroiters with local nonprofit organizations, volunteer opportunities, and ways to provide financial support. Volunteer opportunities curated by Share Detroit appear on Wayne State’s new Volunteer Hub, which provides students, faculty, and staff a one-stop shop to explore both ongoing and one-time engagement and service opportunities.

Local health systems are getting slammed with two alarming trends right now: Spikes in COVID-19 cases and soaring overdose numbers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100,000 Americans have died of an overdose between May 2020 and April 2021. Rising overdoses are impacting the entire country, with all but four states seeing climbing death tolls. In an effort to combat this growing problem, the Oakland County Jail is one of the first in Michigan to launch a program with the help of Wayne State University. It's a vending machine that provides free Naloxone — brand name Narcan — to inmates who are leaving. Naloxone is lifesaving as it can reverse the effects of opioids, which has proven critical to first responders arriving at overdose calls.  

“Change Continues” not only is the name of the winner of Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, but it also is a fitting description of a country that has held three elections with three different winners in the past seven months. Why the electoral churn, and what happens now? First, an inconclusive election in April resulted in an impasse and a caretaker government assembled by the president. Another inconclusive election in July and another caretaker government then led to elections in November. The winner of the Nov. 14 election, a party founded less than two months ago by two business executives who loudly proclaim their Harvard credentials, is the latest in a string of new parties periodically erupting in Bulgaria over the past 20 years. But will Change Continues manage to form a government and address the serious problems facing Bulgarian society? The track record for new parties isn’t promising. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday approved COVID boosters for all adults, days before millions of Americans are expected to travel for gatherings leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday. A CDC expert advisory panel Friday unanimously endorsed broad adult eligibility for either the Pfizer or Moderna boosters once six months have elapsed since recipients finished the two-dose vaccines. Final approval came Friday evening, when CDC director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the recommendations to provide increased protection against the deadly virus. Dr. Teena Chopra, an infectious disease doctor and professor at Wayne State University, said there is mounting anecdotal evidence of waning immunity among those who were fully vaccinated earlier this year. She was among the first doctors in the state to care for the sickest patients, as metro Detroit was overwhelmed in the spring of 2020 in the early days of the pandemic. The first vaccines were first made broadly available to higher-risks groups in January of this year.  “We are now starting to see people who have gone eight months or more since being vaccinated, they’re not boosted, and they are getting hospitalized,” Chopra said.