It was an especially bad start to the week for many salaried employees at General Motors, as the automaker started handing out pink slip in a bid to eliminate 4,000 white-collar employees over the next two weeks. It’s part of plans GM announced in November and discussed on our podcast to slash 14,000 jobs and save $6 billion by 2020.

In other news, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shakes up state government, restructuring and renaming the Department of Environmental Quality as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. She also signed two other measures to address the public’s fears about drinking water in the wake of the Flint water crisis and widespread PFAS contamination.

We also rundown:

• The city of Detroit has pushed back the date for appealing new property tax assessments
• Detroit Restaurant Week kicks off later this month
• Shake Shack is unveiling sous vide “Chick’n Bites”
• Google crunches the numbers and finds Detroit is the nation’s top pizza-eating market; MSN offers some unconventional entries for Motown’s top Detroit-style pizza joints
• The Anna Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle will have limited weekend hours this month due to construction work
• And last but certainly not least, we wade into the talk of the town, the new sculpture in Sterling Heights that some are calling the Golden Butthole of Macomb County

Comments? Questions? Tips? dailydetroit@gmail.com

And if you're interested in our Patreon, that link is here: http://www.dailydetroit.com/patreon