Michigan
Biden, Harris greet Michigan’s Paul Whelan on U.S. soil following historic prisoner swap
Biden, Harris greet freed prisoners on US soil
The historic swap followed months of negotiations by the Biden administration and other nations, and involved 24 prisoners across six countries.
After more than five years in Russian captivity, Michigan’s Paul Whelan is back in the United States.
The wheels of a sleek, silver jet with a single red stripe touched down at 11:37 p.m. Thursday at Joint Base Andrews near Washington D.C., carrying Whelan, 54, of Novi, along with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who also had been held by Russia.
It slowed to a stop at 11:43 p.m., and President Joe Biden, who personally intervened in the long months it took to negotiate a multi-country prisoner swap involving some two dozen people, walked side by side with Vice President Kamala Harris to greet the passengers.
Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, followed directly behind them, trailed by Gershkovich’s parents and Kurmasheva’s family.
More: Michigan leaders react to release of Paul Whelan
More: Tiny Michigan village filled with ‘pure joy’ as Paul Whelan is released from Russia
Whelan was the first to step off the aircraft, meeting applause.
He shook Biden’s hand and gave him a hug, asking, “How you doing, sir?” and then did the same with Harris before walking toward his sister, Elizabeth Whelan, for a long embrace.
“It feels wonderful,” Biden told reporters who asked how he felt a short time later, standing nearby as the families hugged and mingled. “It was a long time coming.”
“I meant what I said (earlier in the day), alliances make a difference, [allies] stepped up and took a chance for us.” Biden’s negotiators worked with a team of other countries, including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey to arrange a swap of some two dozen prisoners, including the three Americans.
It was considered the biggest, most complicated prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War.
Speaking to reporters briefly after being greeted by Biden and Harris, Whelan said, “thank you very much,” to all the people who played a part in his release.
And when asked how he managed to cope during his more than five years and seven months in Russian detention, Whelan said: “I’m resilient. It’s my Irish background. You have to be a little tenacious with these people, but you do it day by day. Every day, I sung the national anthems of my four countries. I did it one step at a time.”
Whelan, who was born in Ottawa, Ontario, holds passports in the U.S., Canada, Britain and Ireland. His parents, Edward and Rosemary Whelan, immigrated to Canada from Britain. The family moved to Ann Arbor when Whelan was a small child, and he graduated in Huron High School’s class of 1988. He got Irish citizenship from his grandparents.
Whelan is a former Marine and was the head of global security for BorgWarner before his arrest in December 2018 in Moscow. He was charged with espionage while visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding. His family and the U.S. government have maintained the charges were false.
Next off the plane after Whelan on Thursday night was Gershkovich, who had been detained in Russia since March 2023 and who waved to the crowd gathered to greet him as he came down the steps. He hugged Biden and Harris before he trained his eyes on his waiting parents.
He lifted his mother into the air as they hugged for the first time in more than a year.
Last off the plane was Kurmasheva, a journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who holds both U.S. and Russian citizenship. She had been detained since October of last year.
She held the hands of the president and vice president, speaking with them for a few minutes before running into the arms of her daughters and husband.
One of her daughters, Miriam, will be 13 years old on Friday. On the tarmac, as Biden wished her happy birthday, Miriam ran to her mother, crying, saying, “I love you so much, I can’t believe you’re here.”
After the other reunions, Whelan returned to Biden, who spoke with him a little longer before taking off the American flag pin on his lapel and giving it to Whelan, who swiftly put it on the collar of his shirt.
Kurmasheva’s husband wore a USA t-shirt and an enormous smile. He lifted his arms into the air, posing for the cameras with his newly reunited family.
Biden felt so invigorated by the event he jogged over to other reporters to answer some more questions.
Whelan said he felt pretty good — even after the long day of travel from Russia to Turkey and then to the U.S. He wasn’t ready to celebrate his freedom, he said, until the plane had reached British airspace, where he finally felt safe.
It was not immediately known when Whelan would return to Michigan. His parents live in Manchester, southwest of Ann Arbor. He said only that he was headed next to Texas.
And now that he’s back on American soil, Whelan said one of the first things he’d like to do is get a steak.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources opened applications through Feb. 1 for Michigan’s spring turkey season.
Officials say there are some changes to the 2026 season, such as the number of turkey management units, which are designated areas open to hunters.
“These regulation changes uphold the goals for the spring turkey hunting season: maximizing hunter opportunity while also maintaining satisfactory hunting experiences across the state,” said Adam Bump, DNR upland game bird specialist.
Here’s what to know about licenses for the upcoming turkey season. For more information on other regulations, visit the DNR’s website.
How much do the applications cost?
Turkey season applications cost $5 each and are available online on the DNR’s website, at any license agent or through the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app.
A map of license agents is available online.
Who is eligible to apply?
Hunters aged 17 and older during the hunting period are eligible to apply for a license as long as they have a hunter education certificate or an apprentice license.
Anyone between the ages of 10 and 16 can purchase a turkey youth license. Anyone age 9 and under can participate through a mentored hunting program to receive a license. Youth turkey licenses are valid for all three management units and season dates.
Where and when can I hunt?
In 2026, the DNR announced that it had reduced the turkey management unit from 14 to three — Upper Peninsula, northern Lower Peninsula and southern Lower Peninsula. The units also determine the type of license hunters can obtain and when they can hunt.
View a map of the turkey management units below:
A Hunt 0110 license is for the Upper Peninsula, with an April 18-May 31 hunting season. Hunt 0134 license is valid for the northern Lower Peninsula and is available from April 18 to May 1. The Hunt 0302 license is available for the southern Lower Peninsula from April 18 to May 1. A Hunt 0303 license is also available for the Southern Lower Peninsula (May 2-31).
These licenses have a limited number available.
Other licenses include Hunt 0234, which is for statewide (April 25-May 31), and Hunt 0301, which is for private land (April 18-May 31). Hunt 0234 is valid on private and public lands in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula, but private only in the southern Lower Peninsula, as well as Fort Custer military lands, with permission.
How can I get a license?
Hunters who apply for a license are entered into a random drawing system. The drawing results are available on March 2.
The Hunt 0234 license (statewide) and Hunt 0301 license (private land) do not require people to enter a drawing. These licenses can be purchased beginning at 10 a.m. on March 16. Hunters can check their drawing results online or on the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app.
“These changes will give hunters longer seasons and bigger units to hunt in,” said Bump.
Anyone who is not selected in the drawing can purchase a leftover license beginning at 10 a.m. on March 9. Anyone who did not enter the drawing can purchase a leftover license on March 16.
How many licenses are available?
There is a 6,000-license quota for Hunt 0110 (Upper Peninsula), an 18,000-license quota for Hunt 0134 (northern Lower Peninsula), a 6,000-license quota for Hunt 0302 (southern Lower Peninsula April season) and an 8,000-license quota for Hunt 0303 (southern Lower Peninsula May season).
Hunt 0234 (statewide) and Hunt 0301 (private land) licenses are unlimited.
Michigan football moved quickly to help fill its running back room on Thursday, adding the No. 1-ranked rusher in the 2024 recruiting class to the roster.
Taylor Tatum, who spent the last two seasons at Oklahoma, signed with the Wolverines for the 2026 season, The Ann Arbor News/MLive confirmed.
Tatum, listed at 5-foot-10 and 212 pounds, has three seasons of college eligibility remaining.
He appeared in 12 games for the Sooners, most of it during his true-freshman season in 2024. That first season, Tatum rushed for 278 yards and three touchdowns, highlighted by a five-carry, 69-yard game in Oklahoma’s season opener against Temple.
Tatum was hampered by injuries in 2025, appearing in just one game against South Carolina, where he rushed once for negative-1 yard.
A former four-star recruit, Tatum was considered the nation’s No. 1 running back in 2024 out of Longview High School in Texas, where he set the school record for career rushing touchdowns (53). He picked Oklahoma over Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, USC, among others.
Tatum was also a member of the Oklahoma baseball team, though he didn’t appear in a game in 2025.
The signing comes just a day after Michigan’s leading rusher in 2025, Jordan Marshall, announced his return to the Wolverines. Since the transfer portal opened last Friday, reserve running backs Bryson Kuzdzal and Jasper Parker have entered. Parker has since signed to play at Arkansas next season.
Meanwhile, Michigan awaits a decision from its other star back, Justice Haynes, who’s left the door open to a return to college. A pair of freshmen backs, Savion Hiter and Jonathan Brown, also joined the team this week.
Tony Alford, Michigan’s running backs coach, was one of three assistants retained by new head coach Kyle Whittingham.
Kyle Whittingham says appeal of Michigan football job was obvious
New Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham said the appeal of the job was obvious on Sunday, Dec. 28, in Orlando.
Michigan football is primed to win now, new coach Kyle Whittingham said this week on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
The Wolverines have made far too many headlines off the field, which is why Whittingham told Patrick the organization needs to simply get back to focusing on the reason they’re all together as a team − football.
“The place doesn’t need a rebuild, it needs a reboot of trust and getting rid of the drama and just get back to playing Michigan football without all the distractions,” Whittingham said. “It didn’t come from the players. The players were not involved. It was not some player issue – it was just the peripheral.
“Guys here have a great attitude, I met with everyone of them last week at the bowl site. Quality young men, care about academics, excited to be at Michigan, but they’ve dealt with a lot over the last few years.”
Whittingham, 66, takes over as the 22nd head coach in program history after a pair of scandals rocked the previous two men who held his job.
Jim Harbaugh led the Wolverines from 2015-23 − and left on top by winning a national championship − but also was found to have a lack of institutional control in his program by NCAA investigators after two separate NCAA violations occurred under his watch: impermissible recruiting and illegal sign-stealing.
More recently, Sherrone Moore was fired in scandal after he was found to have had a relationship with a subordinate and was subsequently arrested after he allegedly went to her house and threatened his own life − he was jailed for two nights and charged with felony home invasion, misdemeanor stalking and misdemeanor breaking and entering.
Patrick asked if there was any selling point Whittingham needed to hear specifically from Michigan. Whittingham said when he stepped away from Utah in mid-December there were only a handful of program’s he would have even entertained. He called Michigan “a special place.”
“Needed to hear that Michigan was what I thought it was,” he said. “Hey’re committed to winning here, we do have some challenges with entrance requirements, there is a little bit of a hurdle there, but talk about athletes, resources, tradition − it’s all here at Michigan.”
Whittingham also quipped about the irony of previously being a team that wore red (Utah) whose primary rival wore blue (BYU) to flipping that. It’s also not lost on him that his mentor, Urban Meyer, went 7-0 against Michigan in his tenure in Columbus − Whittingham joked at his opening press conference that Meyer’s name alone might be considered a “four-letter word” in Ann Arbor.
“Blue was our rival at Utah for years,” he said. “Now I’ve got to get used to saying, ‘Go Blue.’”
Whittingham is in the throes of one of the busiest times on the college football calendar. The transfer portal opened for a 15-day window Jan. 2-16, setting off a scramble to both retain players, scout the database and find appropriate fits for the team.
Whittingham has only known his roster and coaches for approximately 10 days – he said while down in Florida he was going to “lock himself” in a room at Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor to watch film on the players on his roster. He has been able to keep Bryce Underwood, Andrew Marsh, Andrew Babalola, Blake Frazier, Evan Link, Jake Guarnera and Zeke Berry − the last two of whom had put their names in the transfer portal before indicating their return to U-M for 2026.
With money flowing, back-channeling frequent and poaching at an all-time high, Whittingham doesn’t see college football’s current model as something that will last as currently constructed for more than a handful of years.
“It is not sustainable, there’s no question about that,” Whittingham said. “Something’s gotta give. Within a 2- to 4-, 5-year window, you’re going to see a major overhaul of Division I football. I think it’s going to become more of a minor league NFL model. I think you’re gonna see a salary cap, collective bargaining, players as employees.
“I think all that’s coming because we cannot maintain this pace.”
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
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