A federal jury has ordered MGM Grand Detroit to pay $133,000 to a former warehouse manager from Canton who was fired after refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds. The jury determined Thursday afternoon that the casino violated Hratch “Harry” Yeremian’s rights by denying his request for a religious exemption. Yeremian, an Apolostic Orthodox Christian, declined to receive a vaccine after MGM Grand Detroit announced that its salaried, nonunion employees were required to get one in August 2021, saying it would violate his religious beliefs ..read more

Half of America is now roaring for the Detroit Lions as the once-hapless team enters the divisional round of the Super Bowl tournament as the top-ranked squad in the NFC. After an impressive 15-2 season, the mighty Lions host the Washington Commanders at 8 p.m. Saturday ..read more

Welcome to The Straight Dope, our weekly series that explores the best cannabis products in Michigan. With more than 550 licensed growers in Michigan, the recreational cannabis market is overflowing with choices. Some are gems, others not so much ..read more

Long before Justin Trudeau became Canada’s prime minister, his father held the same job. And Pierre Elliott Trudeau famously described the United States in 1969 in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “Living next to you is, in some ways, like sleeping with an elephant,” the elder Trudeau said that day ..read more

There’s a subtle but poignant moment in One of Them Days where Dreux (Keke Palmer) is preparing for a job interview and her best friend Alyssa (SZA) is emptying out her mental drawer of supportive phrases in efforts to fill Dreux with confidence. The moment is cute, playful, and a microcosm of the charming sisterhood that carries the movie. The film’s director Lawrence Lamont says it’s his favorite scene ..read more

A Little Caesars restaurant in Farmington Hills is under fire for hiring minors to operate hazardous equipment and work beyond the legally permitted hours in violation of federal child labor laws, according to an investigation by U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. JMP Pizza Inc., the franchise operator, is accused of instructing a minor under the age of 16 of using a pizza dough mixer and an oven between 500 and 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Federal law prohibits workers under the age of 16 from performing baking activities ..read more

Michigan musical acts Mike Posner and Gmac Cash have been tapped to perform as part of a Lions rally at the Detroit Auto Show ahead of Saturday’s big game. The concert is set for Friday, Jan. 17 at the Grand Riverview Ballroom at Huntington Place. Posner is a Grammy-nominated singer from Detroit, while Gmac Cash is a local rapper known for going viral with humorous bars about local current events ..read more

Hot and sour tom yum soup is a Thai staple that can start off a meal at virtually any restaurant. At its best, it’s glorious: bright and intense with a complex palate, at once spicy, sour, sweet, garlicky, peppery, citrusy, and often holding a little funky punch from chili paste. At its worst, it’s a timid mix that omits some or most of those components ..read more

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: So, you take the traditional musical biopic like A Complete Unknown or Walk the Line, but instead of casting some popular actor like Lil’ Timmy Chalamet or Joaq Phoenix to play the subject, you instead have the musician played by a computer-generated monkey. Yeah, me neither. But that’s what we have in Better Man, a musical biopic about British crooner Robbie Williams ..read more

The thumping sounds of Detroit techno are the subject of a new exhibition hosted by the Michigan State University Museum. Techno: The Rise of Detroit’s Machine Music will offer attendees “an innovative exploration of Detroit’s role as the birthplace of Techno music and its connection to Afrofuturism,” a cultural movement that explores the Black diaspora through the lens of science fiction (and made popular in recent years thanks to Marvel’s Black Panther films). “Techno is more than music; it’s a cultural movement that captures Detroit’s resilience and creativity,” Julian Chambliss said in a ..read more