Top Local Stories For 4/15/20: As Demonstrators Protest Whitmer’s Stay-At-Home Order In Lansing, California And New York Send Ventilators To Michigan

Today we’ve got an all-headlines edition of your Daily Detroit. We run down the latest numbers on confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths from the state, and we discuss the “Operation Gridlock” protest organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition today in Lansing.

The group urged participants to protest what they see as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s overly restrictive stay-at-home order from their vehicles, but hundreds spilled out onto the Capitol grounds anyway, many not wearing masks and ignoring recommendations to maintain 6 feet of distance from other people. 

Also on today’s show:

• Both California and New York, the hardest-hit state, are donating ventilators to Michigan.
• Wayne County is launching a drive-through COVID-19 testing program in Southgate. You can make an appointment, whether or not you have symptoms, here.
• Ford is partnering with Wayne State University, its affiliated physician organization and Dearborn-based ACCESS to launch a mobile coronavirus testing program.
• The budgetary hole the pandemic is opening for the city of Detroit continues to grow larger.
• The state of Michigan is offering a liquor buy-back program for bars and restaurants, but you’d better hurry if you want to take part: The deadline is Friday at 5 p.m. Apply here.
• And some badly needed good news: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Detroit River Conservancy are teaming on a $2.9 million project to remediate contaminated riverfront shoreline at the former site of the Uniroyal plant on East Jefferson just west of East Grand Boulevard. It’s one of the last barriers to extend the Detroit RiverWalk all the way from downtown to the bridge to Belle Isle.

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