Detroit, MI

Detroit Lions Downgrade Brian Branch to Doubtful vs. Seattle Seahawks

Published

2 years ago

September 29, 2024

Detroit Lions Downgrade Brian Branch to Doubtful vs. Seattle Seahawks

In an early Sunday morning bombshell one day before kickoff against the Seattle Seahawks, the Detroit Lions have added one of their best defensive players to the injury report.

According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, safety Brian Branch has been added to the report with a doubtful designation due to an illness. If he isn’t able to suit up, Brandon Joseph would be in line to make his first career NFL start.

Heading into the week, Branch already had been on the Lions initial injury report as he proceeded through concussion protocols. After passing those tests to return to the field, he wasn’t listed on the final injury report on Friday, indicating he would start on Monday night.

Now in his second season out of Alabama, Branch has enjoyed a fantastic start for Detroit, producing 22 tackles, an interception, and two tackles for loss in the first three games. Per Pro Football Focus, he also had recorded five pass breakups in coverage, the most by any safety so far in the NFL, with quarterbacks posting a dismal 54.9 passer rating when targeting him.

As versatile of a chess piece as there is in the league, Branch plays numerous roles for the Lions defensively, as evidenced by the fact he has played 57 snaps at strong safety, 63 at free safety, and 49 in the slot already in 2024. Joseph doesn’t offer the same type of positional flexibility and has only played in five regular season games in two NFL seasons, so Branch’s absence would undoubtedly be a major blow for defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to work around.

The Seahawks will enter Monday’s prime time matchup with the third-ranked passing attack in the NFL anchored by quarterback Geno Smith and receivers DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. On the flipside, the Lions have been average defending the pass, ranking 19th in yardage allowed so far with Branch in the lineup.

Without Branch, Seattle may have a better opportunity to attack downfield against a completely retooled Detroit cornerback group featuring three new starters in rookie Terrion Arnold as well as veteran free agent signings Carlton Davis and Amik Robertson. Tight ends could also have a bigger role without the Swiss army knife available to help cover Noah Fant, Pharaoh Brown, and AJ Barner, further opening up options for Smith to work with.

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Detroit, MI

K-9 sniffs out undeclared fruit trees in arriving luggage at Detroit Metro Airport

Published

4 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

K-9 sniffs out undeclared fruit trees in arriving luggage at Detroit Metro Airport

A K-9 assigned to work at Detroit Metro Airport with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists was credited with two recent instances of detecting undeclared trees among incoming luggage.

One of those circumstances involved an undeclared, suspected fruit tree from Moldova.

The CBP Director of Field Operations Marty C. Raybon shared a video of K-9 Baylee, wearing a CBP identification vest, sniffing out the small, undeclared tree on March 3 while checking arriving luggage at the airport.

“Trees like this can carry exotic plant pests and plant pathogens. Please leave the trees behind and don’t pack a pest!” the agency said in a social media video shared Monday on Instagram.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Detroit Field Office K-9 Baylee has been finding undeclared small trees amid arriving luggage at Detroit Metro Airport.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Detroit Field Office

The same K-9 also found small, undeclared plum trees inside luggage that had arrived with a passenger from Albania on Feb. 20.

“These trees could have carried plum pox virus, a serious disease that harms stone fruit,” Raybon said in that social media post shared Sunday on Instagram. “The U.S. recently got rid of this virus, so it’s important to keep it out.”

A list of prohibited and restricted items for airline travel into the U.S. can be found on the CBP website.

Previous reports of unwelcome agricultural pests intercepted at Detroit Metro have included a medfly amid damaged fruit with a passenger from Albania, caper fruit fly larvae amid fresh flowers from Italy, and remains of an invasive khapra beetle found amid luggage arriving from Lebanon.

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Detroit, MI

Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” replacing Colbert’s “Late Show”

Published

16 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” replacing Colbert’s “Late Show” – CBS Detroit

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Detroit native Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” is set to replace Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” time slot.

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Detroit, MI

Secret Cinematheque launching Thursday with mystery Michigan movie

Published

1 day ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Secret Cinematheque launching Thursday with mystery Michigan movie

The surprise selection will be unveiled when the lights go down at Motor City Cinematheque’s new public program.

A movie with very strong Michigan connections will play Thursday night at the Farmington Civic Theater.

There’s only one hitch: Viewers won’t know what it is until the lights go down and the movie starts.

The evening will act as the kickoff of Secret Cinematheque, a new mystery movie program from Motor City Cinematheque, a nonprofit organization launched in 2025 that is dedicated to enriching film culture in Metro Detroit.

Motor City Cinematheque was founded by Kevin Maher, a veteran of several Hollywood studios who has been involved with nonprofit film exhibition for around a decade, and John Monaghan, a former Detroit Free Press film and theater critic and a former programmer at Detroit’s Redford Theatre.

The Secret Cinematheque programming, which will be held at the Farmington Civic the second Thursday of every month, is one of several film-related initiatives being launched by MCC.

Other programs include an exhibition of experimental 16mm short films at Detroit’s Galerie Camille on May 7; September’s Noir City Detroit festival at the Redford Theatre; an ongoing partnership with the Black Canon, Ali J. Wheeler and Alima Wheeler Trapp’s vast archive of important and influential films representing decades of Black culture; and a new twice-monthly podcast, “One Film Leads to Another,” which is centered on tracing contemporary film’s roots in classic cinema.

“For us, it’s all about getting people into a theater and watching a movie together, and then talking about it in a group setting,” says Maher. “Watching something communally adds another dimension to the experience, even if you’ve seen the movie before.”

That community aspect is at the heart of the Motor City Cinematheque’s mission. Maher compares it to church; there’s the service, and then there’s the greeting line afterward. “That’s the part that builds community,” he says, of the post-ceremony ritual. “And without that interaction, it’s not complete.”

Maher says his film preferences tend to run more populist, and Monaghan’s more toward the obscure. The melding of their tastes will result in a unique blend of programming, he says. The Secret Cinematheque series will also draw guest contributors from area film personalities.

As for this week’s Detroit-themed Secret Cinematheque offering — clues have been offered up on the Motor City Cinematheque and the Farmington Civic’s Instagram pages — “it’s one of those films that’s worth celebrating about Detroit,” Maher says.

No spoilers. See you at the movies.

agraham@detroitnews.com