While Donald Trump is in the United Kingdom meeting with prime minister Keir Starmer and the King of England, the highest-ranking U-S official on American soil is Vice President JD Vance. The VP visited Michigan yesterday, making a stop at a metal stamping plant in Howell.

Vance toured the facility before delivering a speech to a room of largely conservative supporters. The visit came one week after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered by a gunman in Utah.

Vance shouted out Kirk for his embodiment of conservative values and success in attracting youth into the Republican party. Main talking points also centered around President Trump’s economic policy and deployments of the National Guard.

“We deserve to be safe in our communities again,” said Vance, “and that’s what the president is making happen.”

Vance told the crowd he would be happy to see the National Guard deployed in Detroit, calling on Governor Whitmer to ask for the White House’s assistance. That’s despite crime rates in the city trending down in recent years.

Vance said the White House’s economic policies will make things cheaper for families.

“We talk about no taxes on overtime,” said Vance, “which we are proud to deliver — the lowest taxes we’ve had in this country in a very long time.”

Michigan Democrats have countered the president’s spending bill and economic policies have hurt residents around the state, driving up prices on things like healthcare and groceries.

In 2023, the City of Detroit took over the duty of maintaining the land alongside its freeways from the State of Michigan. That includes cutting the grass on embankments.

With more than 240 miles of freeways in Detroit to take care of, director of the city’s General Services Department, Crystal Perkins, says maintaining the land along the road is a full-time job.

“We have been doing five cuts on the freeways a year,” said Perkins, “Along with litter pickup, we’re out here seven days a week.”

Complicating the task, Perkins says more than 80% of that land is a steep slope.  Those embankments are traditionally cut with heavy duty riding mowers, which do run the risk of tipping over, creating a potentially dangerous situation for operators working just inches from where cars are doing 70 miles per hour.

But the days of worrying so much about rider safety could become a thing of the past. Payne Landscaping, one of two companies the city contracts with, has started to use remote-controlled lawnmowers.

The new technology moves the operator off the frame and up the slope, where they control the machine with a handheld device. Perkins says that set-up is attractive to a new generation of lawncare professionals.

“The operators are more technical,” said Perkins. “So your young adults, your people who maybe like to spend a lot of time on videogames.”

There are a number of benefits to working with the remote-controlled mowers, which are more lightweight than ride-along equipment. Payne Landscaping director, Terry Payne, says it allows his employees to cut grass, even when it’s wet.

“You can cut in the rain with these,” Payne said. “The other mowers, you cannot cut. You’re going to leave tracks.”

That makes it easier for the city to maintain its five-cut-a-year freeway upkeep schedule. City officials say keeping the slopes well-manicured helps discourage illegal dumping.

Beyond the convenience, Payne says the user experience with remote mowers is better than it is with ride-along gear.

“You bounce a lot,” Payne said of old mowers. “It’s bad on your knees and different things. So this is more comfortable. You’re just walking behind it.”

Detroit officials would like to see more remote-controlled lawn mowers buzzing alongside major thoroughfares, but the technology isn’t cheap — costing more than $60,000 per mower. That said, Payne says it’s about the same price as the traditional riding equipment his company would be using otherwise.

Gordie Howe International Bridge officials say construction work on the new span over the Detroit River is about 95% complete.

The project broke ground in 2018. The roughly 1.5-mile long crossing between Detroit and Windsor is still on track to open this fall, but an exact date has not yet been given.

Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority spokesperson Heather Grondin says crews are wrapping up paving work and putting the finishing touches on employee areas.

“We’re also doing a lot of landscaping,” said Grondin. “These are major ports of entry — the largest along the Canada-U.S. border — so landscaping is a huge part of the project.”

Grondin adds that crews have a number of final checks to carry out before the grand opening.

“Testing our lighting is a great example of that,” she said. “It’s not just installing the 5,000-plus aesthetic lights, the safety lights that will be on the bridge, but it’s also testing it and making sure it works.”

As for work residents in Michigan and Ontario may notice, Grondin says the construction cranes on the bridge have now come down — marking a major milestone in the project.

Work has also begun on testing the technological systems and processes in preparation for the bridge’s opening, according to project officials.