The construction equipment industry is projected to grow 12% from 2016 to 2026. Across the United States and the world, these pieces of equipment are used in all kinds of industries and are essential for not only construction purposes, but home remodeling and even agricultural production.

The global food and agricultural industry in 2016 was approximately 10% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). Across the more than 900 million acres of farmland in the United States, a specific construction and agricultural equipment brand can be found all over the place: John Deere.

John Deere is an American manufacturing corporation that produces agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery diesel engines, drivetrains, and much more than are used across the U.S. and the globe. As for 2017, the company brought in approximately $29.7 billion in revenue. Though brand-new John Deere equipment can be pricey (worth it), there are some collectable items that can be worth just as much.

A local Michigan man believes he is currently in possession of the largest John Deere tractor collection in the state.

According to WSBT, Stan Hynek is passionate about the John Deere brand and has spent the last 30 years collecting John Deere tractors, swag, and other collectables.

“When I see one, I figured I have to get the whole series,” said Hynek. “I got to get all the Allis Chalmers. All the John Deere’s.”

Forget just having the largest collection in Michigan, Hynek is one of the few people in the entire country with the full set that dates back to the 1950s. In total, he has 158 pedal tractors and can remember the story of each and every one.

Even more impressively, Hynek purchased each item in his collection from someone he knows personally or was introduced to in person — no Craigslist, no random purchases, and no online transactions.

“Everything that you see here and even my pedals and a lot of my toys come from individuals I know or they say, ‘Hey Stan, somebody’s got this for sale. Go take a look at it,’” Hynek added.

Hynek might want to leave his Michigan home for a few weeks next summer and head to Grand Island, Nebraska for the inaugural Classic Green Reunion.

According to The Grand Island Independent, the three-day expo will feature all kinds of makes and models of antique John Deere tractors, equipment, and memorabilia — right up Hynek’s — and anyone else who loves John Deere — alley.

The rare John Deere showcase will take place next June 13, 14, and 15 at Nebraska’s Fonner Park.

“The members of Classic Green are grateful and excited that Grand Island has invited us into their community,” said Chris Boyens of the Classic Green Club Inc. “We’re looking forward to sharing the enthusiasm for all things John Deere with everyone at our inaugural show.”

This tractor-loving showcase isn’t just for people like Hynek, however. Though John Deere exports and collectors are encouraged to attend, so are young children who might have an interest in the historic company.

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“If there is a 16-year-old kid who has an old John Deere and he wants to bring it, fixed up or not, and be a part of this event, he is more than welcome to join us,” added Steve Plambeck, a local John Deere collector and chairman of the Classic Green Reunion. “We want to include everyone and make them feel welcome.”

On July 6 2018, Ca’Maya Davis drowned just weeks before her first birthday. While the death of any child is heartbreaking, young children drowning isn’t unheard of. In fact, drowning is the second leading cause of death for American kids under the age of 5. What makes Ca’Maya’s story so eye-opening and tragic is the unique circumstances. Ca’Maya drowned in a substantial amount of standing water and sewage in the basement of her Detroit home after falling through a hole in the floorboards of her own bedroom.

Ca’Maya’s mother Dasiah Jordan and Jordan’s friend Tonya Peterson have since each been arraigned on one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of second-degree child abuse. Jordan was visiting friends at the time and left Ca’Maya in the care of Peterson, who also lived in the home. The child was reportedly unsupervised in her room when she fell through a “gaping” hole straight into the flooded basement.

Jordan tells authorities that she had been aware of the less-than-ideal condition of the home since they moved there in April, but chose to live there anyway because she had “nowhere else to go.”

While this story is heart-wrenching, there is hope that Ca’Maya’s death can shed some light on a seldom-acknowledged plight of Detroit. In the midst of a city working to grow again, its longest residents are left with few options and little help.

Trying to Rebuild

After its historic bankruptcy five years ago, Detroit has been busy attempting to revitalize and bring in new residents.

One example of Detroit’s efforts is the Fitz Forward project, centered in the Fitzgerald neighborhood. It’s estimated that about a third of the lots in this southwest section of Detroit currently sit vacant, including many lots occupied by empty homes. Residents have begun to use these lots for community projects like gardens and parks.

The Fitz neighborhood celebrated the opening of the Ella Fitzgerald Park early this August. The park was built on 19 consecutive vacant lots in the Fitzgerald neighborhood, and so far the feedback has been fairly positive. Still, large projects like this park need plenty of funding and volunteers to come to fruition, and the Fitz Forward project has had issues with keeping federal funding and staying on schedule. Part of the Fitz Forward plan is to help provide grants and loans to low- and middle-income home buyers for new and refurbished homes in the city, though some are skeptical about how well the plan will go considering its recent struggles.

There are plenty of other grassroots projects in place, such as the “Write A House” project currently centered in the Banglatown neighborhood north of Hamtramck. Two Brooklyn transplants are partnering with groups like Young Detroit Builders to refurbish small, derelict homes in the area and rent them inexpensively to hand-picked writers in the hope of cultivating the growing Detroit arts scene.

Are you seeing the trend? These projects are great for refurbishing existing unoccupied structures and drawing in new residents. They do very little to address the bleak realities faced by many existing residents like little Ca’Maya and her mother.

New Residents Versus Existing Residents

So what is the secret housing emergency in Detroit? The state of current resident’s homes. A majority of rebuilding efforts in the city focus on revitalizing downtown, building new homes and community fixtures like parks, and refurbishing unoccupied homes. They aim to bring in new residents who will boost the economy and support Detroit’s regrowth. But what about the Detroit residents who own or rent homes in the area and aren’t finding any resources to fix their existing home?

Home owning and renting is expensive. Detroit housing is arguably inexpensive of course, but that low cost is offset by lack of work and low incomes. There are other hidden costs to poverty, too. For example, residents frequently don’t have updated, safe piping, as it’s Detroit city regulation that piping and sewer service on a homeowner’s private property is their responsibility. This is standard for most cities, but as established, many residents simply don’t have the income or homeowning experience to take care of repairs and replacements.

Official city water quality reports show safe water at a municipal level, but many residents still opt for safer bottled water. This is another small expense that adds up, as the average cost of $1.22 for a gallon of bottled water in America is around 300 times more expensive than a gallon’s worth of tap water.

Some critics have asked, “why don’t these people just move?” There’s certainly no shortage of homes. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and H.U.D., an estimated 1,319,000 new homes were completed as of February 2018 in the U.S., and as we’ve seen, many new homes are being built solely in the Detroit area.

Nevermind the cost of a new home, moving is an expense in and of itself. On average, an interstate move costs around $4,300. Even an intrastate move can cost upwards of $2,300. Many can’t afford professional movers, and an alarming percentage of those who can’t afford movers also would have extreme difficulty moving all their belongings to a new home on their own.

Fast, small, cheap options like tiny house communities are being experimented with, but the cheap builds use basic materials like wood siding and asphalt shingles, which have a lifespan of 20 to 50 years at most. They’re temporary options.

What Now?

How can the city properly rebuild if the current residents can’t better the homes they currently live in? Do Detroit officials owe some kind of help to citizens who can’t afford to better the homes they own or rent? It’s difficult to say when money and planning is so tight.

Steps are being made in the right direction. After it was found that a shocking 70% of Detroit rental properties were not regularly inspected and often not even registered by landlords, in October 2017 the City Council voted unanimously to strengthen rental regulations. This includes mandatory lead inspections and even barring landlords from collecting rent if they don’t pass city inspections.

In a show of transparency, the mayor’s office has publicly admitted that some neighborhoods have been neglected in the wake of rebuilding. If residents continue to voice their concerns, there is hope yet that there will not be another avoidable tragedy like the story of baby Ca’Maya.

Despite the water crisis in Flint Michigan, many public schools across the nation aren’t testing the water for lead levels. This is possibly detrimental to students; lead can cause death, kill brain cells, slow growth and development from small amounts of exposure, and even cause infertility from prolonged exposure.

According to new studies by the Government Accountability Office, only 43% of school districts tested their schools’ water for lead levels between 2016 and 2017. The remaining 37% of districts that did perform the test reportedly discovered lead in the water.

This comes on the heels of the Flint, Michigan water crisis in 2014 and 2015, though the issues regarding water security in the area still haven’t been solved. The crisis affected an estimated 100,000 residents.

According to the Huffington Post, these issues persist in public schools due to the lack of Federal regulation on water testing. Only eight states require mandatory water testing, while an additional 13 state governments voluntarily help the schools perform the testing.

A regular school alarm requires the time of two officers to investigate an issue; for public schools in the United States, the alarm bell hasn’t yet been rung.

While studies are still in the works regarding the effect of lead poisoning on children, issues regarding lead poisoning on fertility have been revealed in a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In their research, “Toxic Truth: Lead and Fertility,” an fertility rates in Flint, Michigan dropped by 12 percent. Fetal deaths also increased by 58% at the peak of the city’s water contamination.

This study also points out the reliance Americans have on lead-based products. Between lead paints, pipes, gasoline products, and plumbing, this option is an affordable option that hasn’t been shaken.

When water damage can cost an estimated $2,386 to repair, the cost of replacing lead pipes is an expensive venture.

For now, the federal threshold for lead in the household is 15 parts per billion (ppb). For now, Washington, D.C. has created a new law only allows 5 ppb of lead in their public schools’ drinking water.

Even small doses of lead can damage a child; in response, certain groups and activists have campaigned for changes in water regulation. The Campaign for Lead Free Water is a group that opposes the new law in Washington, D.C. public schools.

The only way to guarantee lead doesn’t get into drinking water is to remove lead plumbing altogether. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose a revision to the Safe Drinking Water Act, but it is unknown if the EPA is prioritizing the change.

Budget cuts are something that school districts are all too familiar with. But the new 2018-2019 budget for Michigan schools could mean sizable layoffs or even school closures.

Gov. Rick Snyder signed a $16.8 billion education budget, which is the last of the governor’s two terms. The budget is being criticized when it comes to a provision regarding “partnership” districts. These districts are Michigan’s lowest-performing schools and have had to work with the Michigan Department of Education in an effort to remain open.

But under the new budget, these schools are facing either losing at least 25% of their staff or being closed altogether if their students don’t show that they’re on track to meet proficiency standards over the next two or three years.

“They would lose some really good teachers that do great things with kids who may not score well,” Melissa Wriggelsworth, a teacher at the Lansing Public School District, explained. “I don’t look at students coming in as a math score.”

Already, most public schools face a 10% lower student-teacher ratio than privately funded schools. Last year, late-state Superintendent Brian Whiston helped negotiate to save some of the underperforming schools. And according to Michigan education department spokesman Bill DiSessa, the partnership agreements already provoke accountability in these schools.

“…But what I can tell you is that the partnership model has been working,” DiSessa said. “We are moving forward with it as we are in our overall plan, and that’s to make Michigan a top 10 education state in 10 years.”

Anna Heaton, Snyder’s spokeswoman, explained that the new legislation is not on course to change the nature of the agreements and that the governor does believe in the partnership model.

However, GOP lawmakers aren’t as hopeful about the partnerships. The partnerships have been described as no more than “a workaround vehicle created by the governor and superintendent to get around the law.” Many state representatives do anticipate closures.

The new budget will allow $120 to $240 more to be spent on each Michigan student. Public and charter schools will have an allowance between $7,871 to $8,409. This funding is going towards helping students improve their performance, particularly at underperforming schools. And with one in four children in the U.S. having a vision problem that may disrupt their learning, schools hope to be able to use their funding to provide their students with the resources they need.

Despite the increased funding for certain schools, education committee members remain concerned that the teachers at underperforming schools are not going to receive the support they need and instead, be laid off or have their school closed. However, the department approves of Snyder’s increased spending in not only early childhood development, but career and technical training as well.

Although McKinsey’s research shows that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform their peers, that doesn’t mean everyone is accepting of those from differing racial and religious backgrounds. That’s unfortunately backed up by research released last year, which revealed that the number of assaults on Muslims in the U.S. spiked between 2015 and 2016, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2011 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now, a 19-year-old Muslim woman has become the victim of an unprovoked attack in a Detroit area hospital and is suing both the attacker and the hospital.

On February 10, the female college student wearing a hijab (whose name has not been released to protect her identity) was checking in to the emergency department of Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn after a fall that had possibly broken her jaw. While up to 65% of all ER episodes can be treated at urgent care locations, this is one injury that may have required ED attention. And unfortunately, the woman in question was going to need immediate medical attention for injuries sustained in the waiting room itself. Within five seconds of walking up to the front desk, the woman was attacked from behind. Surveillance video showed the assailant, identified as 51-year-old John Deliz, struck her in the head with his fists several times and knocked her to the ground. A paramedic and a security officer pulled Deliz off of the teen until police arrived.

But police were already on their way to the hospital before the attack even occurred. They had received a report that a disorderly subject, later identified as Deliz, was roaming the halls of the hospital and causing problems. It was later revealed that Deliz had escaped from a group home and had been showing signs of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He was admitted to the hospital for not taking his medication. He was then discharged from the hospital (in a move that the woman’s lawyer, Majed Moughni, says was premature) but remained on hospital grounds, allegedly bothering other patients before attacking the woman in question.

Moughni told reporters, “The hospital was aware of his condition as he was brought because he needed mental treatment. Instead of treating him, they discharged him into the ER waiting room. Instead of giving him mental treatment, they put him back in the patient pool, thereby giving way to his attack.” He went on to say, “[Beaumont] took a gamble by not holding him and lost. You don’t release a dangerous man into a population of people who are sick and weak. This incident could have been prevented.”

According to Moughni, his client has suffered bruises to the face and is experiencing symptoms of anxiety and PTSD. He stated she is terrified to leave her home and is mentally and emotionally distressed. As a result, she’s filed an ethnic intimidation suit against Deliz and is seeking $25,000 in damages from the hospital, citing negligence.

Moughni told the Detroit News, “We want to hold them accountable for not looking out for the safety of other patients. Our number one goal is to make sure no human being is attacked the way my client was.”

Deliz remains in custody. His next court appearance will take place later this month.