candgnews.com
0321-2308
FEBRUARY 22, 2023 Vol. 43, No. 4
SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN IN BUSINESS STARTS ON 13A
Warren receives opioid settlement CITY LOOKS FOR IMPACTFUL WAYS TO SPEND IT BY GENA JOHNSON gjohnson@candgnews.com
See OPIOID on page 4A
AUTORAMA DRIVES INTO TOWN THIS WEEKEND WARREN RESIDENTS FEATURED IN THE SHOW BY MARIA ALLARD allard@candgnews.com
ABOVE: Autorama will be held at Huntington Place, in Detroit, from noon to 10 p.m. Feb. 24; from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Feb. 25; and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 26. Photo provided by Detroit Autorama
TOP: Henry Ruiz, of Warren, will display his 1968 Plymouth Road Runner at Autorama this year. Ruiz, 70, has wanted a Road Runner since he was in high school.
DETROIT/WARREN — Honk your horns: This year’s annual Detroit Autorama is celebrating a milestone. The famed car show will commemorate its 70th anniversary when it kicks into gear Feb. 24-26 at Detroit’s Huntington Place. Throughout the weekend, more than 800 custom-built cars and trucks, hotrods and motorcycles from the U.S. and around the world, including New Zealand, will be showcased. Autorama is produced by Championship Auto Shows, hosted by the Michigan Hot Rod Association, sponsored by Meguiar’s and presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts. See AUTORAMA on page 12A
Photo by Maria Allard
SPECIAL ORDER YOUR 2023 TODAY
2023 Subaru Outback
2023 Subaru Ascent
0091-2302
WARREN — The city of Warren recently received its first payment from the opioid settlement of $567.383.61. Attorneys general around the country joined forces to go after the prescription drug companies that produce opioids, which include oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), morphine, and methadone. “These companies had to pay billions of dollars to our (United States) government because they failed to inform the public, these medications were addictive. They encouraged doctors to push it and gave rewards for such (behavior),” said Warren Mayor James Fouts. “They did everything they could to basically get people addicted to opioids. That created a problem because opioids cost money. “Then when people were fully addicted and they couldn’t spend any more money, then they had to go to the open market for heroin. And if heroin wasn’t bad enough then it was laced with fentanyl,” Fouts said. Warren joins cities around the state, region and country that are receiving an opioid settlement from these large pharmaceutical companies. In terms of the settlement awarded to the city of Warren, “They haven’t given us a specific figure,” said Fouts. “We are going to get incremental checks on a yearly basis for the next 18 years. We are going to get another check this year for more than $100,000 this year, making this year’s settlement closer to $700,000.” According to the mayor, 500,000 people have died of opioid overdoses in the U.S. since 1999. An estimated 93,000 died of opioid