Detroit must sit this one out. Motor Trend magazine has named the Tesla Model S as its Car of the Year. The $59,000 sedan is billed as the first electric sports car.

Tesla, you ask? Isn’t there a rock band with the same name?

Tesla, the car company, will celebrate its 10th birthday next year. For heaven’s sake, it’s just a kid. Ford and General Motors have ongoing lawsuits older than that. Tesla is the brainchild of Elon Musk, who operates out of California’s  Silicon Valley. Frankly, those pocket-protector-wearing computer geeks should leave the car building to us Motor City grease monkeys. I don’t think you can use a Joshua tree to be a shade-tree mechanic.

Of course, Detroit still designs and builds the best cars around. How in the world could I possibly be biased? Because the food on my family’s table depends on Ford perfecting voice-activated controls or General Motors designing a spill-proof drink holder? For my money, and my family’s, GM’s Volt is still the best electric car out there. And it’s not made in the state of California, which is really out there.

HELLO THERE -- NO THAT IS NOT A  TESLA PICTURED ABOVE. IT'S A VEHICLE SPOTTED LOCALLY WITH A PERSONALIZED LICENSE PLATE. IF IT'S YOURS, EMAIL ME A FOTO OF THE CAR PARKED IN YOUR DRIVEWAY AND YOU CAN WIN TICKETS TO THE AMERICAN PLACE THEATRE'S "The Things They Carried" AT 10 AM NOV. 27 AT THE MACOMB CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS. SO, YOU HAVE TO BE A REAL FAN OF LOCAL THEATER AND ALSO AN EARLY RISER! EMAIL ME AT ED.FITZGERALD@MACOMBDAILY.COM. 

A state official said a fatal crash in Ann Arbor came during an expressway backup caused by the repair of a highway sign. The crash happened Saturday morning on eastbound Interstate 94.
Annarbor.com said the crash killed 43-year-old Sean Desmarais of Ann Arbor and injured two 18-year-olds from Minnesota.
Michigan Department of Transportation manager Mark Sweeney said traffic on the expressway stopped while work crews replaced a sign near US-23. He said the closing lasted about an hour. Desmarais' truck hit a stopped car.
I was headed downtown Detroit at about 8 p.m. Saturday and saw a large detail of trucks working on signs on eastbound I-94. Isn't there a better time to do this? And maybe these signs don't need to be replaced in the first place. A lot of this work is on set schedules. For instance, certain signs may be replaced every 10 years. How about doubling that to 20 years?

One of my favorite places to drive to is Canada. Hands down. It is an absolute treasure that we in the Detroit area should take advantage of. In just a half-hour we can be drinking better beer and driving faster. The posted speed limit for Ontario highways is 100 km, but believe me, everyone drives much faster than that.

And my favorite way to enter Canada? By bridge. The tunnel is fine but it's a bit more expensive and can cause anyone's claustrophobia to flare up. 

The Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron is fine and Sarnia can be a bit easier to navigate than Windsor, if you heading on to Toronto, which I usually am. No disrespect to Canada's border towns intended.

But from where I live the natural crossing site is the Ambassador Bridge.

Which leads me straight into the dangerous realm of politics and Proposal 6, which state voters will decide on Tuesday.

All I can say about Proposal 6 is this: Aren’t Republicans supposed to be pro-business? That's the main plank of their platform, for goodness sakes.

Why does Republican Gov. Rick Snyder not want Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun to continue doing what he does best: Be a successful businessman.

Snyder says a new bridge won't cost taxpayers a dime. I doubt that. And whatever money the state does spend on building, running and maintaining a bridge could be better spent on other areas -- like hiring police and teachers (as long as new hires get 401k plans instead of pensions but that's a whole other issue).

CNBC’s Robert Frank addressed the issue in his "Inside Wealth" column. Among other things he says: "Moroun can't be faulted for fighting off competition. That's what businesses do."