Detroit Dreaming

In addition the residency program, Red Bull Arts Detroit has expanded its opportunities to fellowship positions that allow writers and curators space and time to do their thing, too. Those selected to participate in the residency program, however, receive housing, studio space, a generous stipend as well as access to Detroit’s fully engaged art community. The latest cycle will showcase work by Patrick Quarm, Miatta Kawinzi, and Tiff Massey all of whom explore identity through their distinct visions and bold commentaries spanning emotional installations, wearable sculptures, and textural portraiture. Their work will be on display through June 2.

Redbull Arts Detroit Resident Artist Exhibition opening begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 12 at Red Bull Arts Detroit; 1551 Winder St., Detroit; 313-279-7382; redbullarts.com/detroit. Event is free.

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According to Rod Beard of the Detroit News, the Detroit Pistons officially began their pre-draft workouts on Friday with six prospects.

Included in the workouts were Armoni Brooks, Jordan Caroline, Javin DeLaurier, Olumiye Oni, Payton Pritchard, and B.J. Taylor.

Nation, who would you like to see the Pistons select in the 2019 NBA Draft?

The NBA Draft will take place on Thursday, June 20th. Barring a trade, the Pistons will select 15th in the opening round.

Wayne State University in Detroit has the lowest six year graduation rate of any public university in Michigan. That’s the bad news, but the good news is the university has the fastest improving graduation rate in the country.

If all goes well, India Pleasant, a freshman from Detroit, will graduate three years from now from Wayne State University with bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

But like a lot of nontraditional students, that’s just one of many things on her plate right now.

“I wake up around 5:00 am, I get my little brother ready for school. I take him to school every morning. I start studying since I’m up so early, I go to my classes because I have early classes. Usually my classes end around 1:00 or 2:15, then I come to Southfield to go to my old high school where I coach step team, which is step practice usually every day. After that I leave and usually go straight to work at the Masonic Temple/Fox Theatre, and I go shopping for my mom often because she works and can’t do it herself,” Pleasant said.

On top of all that, she’s a full time student with 15 credit hours, she has to help her brother with his homework and sometimes cook dinner, and she has to do her homework and get ready for class the next day.

For the longest time, students like India weren’t likely to graduate from Wayne State. In 2011, only 9% of African-American students were graduating in six years. For students whose parents didn’t go to college, only 18% were making it.

All over the country, there are huge discrepancies in completion rates, especially when you look at race and family income.

Alicia Ortez, one of many academic advisers that Wayne State has hired in a huge push to raise its graduation rates, says many students, like India, are juggling many outside obligations that need to be taken into account.

“They’re not just necessarily students getting up, coming from the residence hall, working, going to class, finding time for homework and that’s all they do,” Ortez said.

Unlike advisers of a different era, she sees her job as a lot more than just talking to students about tuition and financial aid. When students are struggling in class, her big question, is why?

“Let’s try to get that person connected with their adviser or talk to the professor or something, so that we can figure out what’s going happen so that they can do their best,” she said.

The advisers are part of a broad strategy at Wayne State. There are scholarships. India got one. There are new study requirements and a summer bridge program that helps students stay on track.

All this effort is beginning to pay off.

Last year, the six-year completion rate for all students was 47%. For first generation students, it’s up to 37%. And now, 22% of African-Americans get their degree from Wayne State.

Monica Brockmeyer, the Senior Associate Provost for Student Success at Wayne State, says the school has made progress, but not enough.

“We at Wayne State have still have large educational disparities around race and ethnicity, around income status, around first generation.”

Brockmeyer says they set a goal of getting 50% of their students to graduate from Wayne State six years.

“We set that goal because at the time it seemed like a really even unimaginably attainable goal,” she said.

But now that they’re close to 50%, Brockmeyer thinks the school will hit its goal early this year.

Pleasant says she expects to be one of the more than 50 % of students graduating from Wayne State when she walks across the graduation stage in 2022.

“Yes, you can expect me to walk across the stage in a cap and a gown and a Wayne State button that the provost gave me,” Pleasant said.

And she plans to stay at Wayne State for Law school.

After facing the loss of its Medicare funding, officials from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs say Sinai-Grace Hospital has passed an inspection to determine whether it would keep the funding. In early March, the Detroit Medical Center’s hospital was found to be in violation of numerous Medicare compliance rules and was threatened with being removed from its Medicare funding program.

The notice said, “We expect that your hospital will be in full compliance with the Condition of Participation of Physical Environment by July 31, 2019, as specified in your plan.” Funding would’ve been cut August 31st in the situation that the hospital was out of compliance.

Documents from January show that inspectors found numerous fire safety hazards including “cardboard in place of ceiling tiles,” ineffective sprinkler systems, and more. The hospital has struggled in the past with improper patient care and poor infection control practices.

Officials from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a letter to the hospital that it has repealed its decision to stop providing Medicare funding.

The DMC's Harper and Receiving hospitals have had issues with Medicare regulation compliance as well in the past. The DMC’s Harper University Hospital received notice that its Medicare funding was in jeopardy because of poor conditions. Three cardiologists from Harper Hospital sued the DMC and its parent company Tenet Health over safety concerns earlier this year.

DMC officials haven’t responded to requests for comment.

By Defender News Service

An Italian eatery in Texas is facing backlash after a recent Black college graduate claims she was racially profiled and ordered to leave after speaking out against what she says is the restaurant’s questionable automatic gratuity policy.

Brittany Blakney said she and her friends visited Locatelli’s restaurant in Cypress last Thursday to celebrate her recent graduation from Prairie View A&M University, according to KPRC. All was well until Blakney said a server informed the group he was tacking on a 15 percent gratuity to their dinner bill.

What happened next Blakney said she simply couldn’t believe.

“Basically he said, ‘Black students from Prairie View don’t tip,’” she told the station. “It was really shocking because I had never experienced anything like that before.”

Blakney said she reported the incident to a manager, who only defended the server and then booted her from the restaurant.

“It was definitely embarrassing because she even threatened to call the police,” Blakney said of the incident. “Nobody was belligerent. Nobody was loud … cursing at her … anything.”

Kerrie Salazar, the general manager at Locatelli’s, told KPRC the incident wasn’t about race but out of concern that Blakney and her friends wouldn’t tip.

“It’s very frustrating for the servers because that’s the way that they make their income,” Salazar explained.

She insisted the server had a right to add the 15 percent gratuity to the party of six, although she acknowledged the policy isn’t always enforced. Salazar said Blakney insulted her while voicing her concerns over the matter, and began using foul language in front of the other patrons.

“I just realized that the situation was not going to be defused unless I asked her to simply leave the restaurant.”

IRS rules say automatic gratuities are service charges that the restaurant is entitled to keep some or all of, unlike tips. Any distribution of this restaurant income to employees is considered wages paid for tax purposes.

This article originally appeared in the Defender News Network. 

HARWOOD, N.D. — WDAY Meteorologist Lydia Blume captured this video of flooded fields beside a closed road Tuesday, April 9, just west of the Sheyenne River.

The video, which was shared to WDAY's Facebook page, was captured at 30th Street Southeast and 170th Avenue Southeast and shows how far the river's reached.

At Harwood, the river is cresting around 91.54 feet and is expected to continue at that level for a few days.

For up-to-date river levels and flood forecasts, check out the article WDAY Chief Meteorologist John Wheeler put together.