1. Teens will now be able to get around Grand Rapids a little easier. Anyone 12-years-old and older can ride the city's free autonomous shuttles without a parent or guardian.
Four Shuttles were introduced this summer. They can seat up to 5 people and move around the DASH West Route which goes through downtown, the West side, and the Heartside Business District.
To see hours of operation, visit the city's website.
2. Hundreds of dollars in school lunch debt is about to be paid off thanks to one mom and a local business who's stepping up to help.
Aaron Haight started raising money for student lunch debt at Allendale Public Schools years ago, and even got some businesses involved. But she only needed one business this year: Trail Point Brewing.
The brewery stepped in to pay the entire debt in full.
Haight says the debt is usually about $600, but they won't know the total until the school year ends next June.
3. A shop near Detroit is getting some love from Oprah. Bateel, a store that specializes in gourmet dates, is on her list of Favorite Things.
The business is mentioned as one of Oprah's Favorite Things in the December edition of O Magazine.
Bateel is an international company that has only one shop in the U.S. It's on Old Woodward in Birmingham.
On page 70 there's a $79 gift box from the company.
Bateel offers dates filled with nuts or some that are chocolate covered, but Oprah chose the plain ones because they're low-calorie.
Bateel has an online shop and can ship anywhere in the U.S. and Canada.
4. There's a chance your future car could be made out of coffee. Ford and McDonald's are working together to transform coffee waste into car parts.
Here's how it works: As a coffee bean roasts, its skin comes off. The leftover material is known as coffee chaff.
Ford will then take the chaff left behind from McDonald's coffee, combine it with plastic, and create a substance that can be molded into car parts such as headlamp housing units.
Ford hopes to continue using this sustainable product and create additional parts in the future.
5. Back in the day folks would hang candles and clementines n their Christmas trees. But it's 2019, so it's about time we started decorating trees with cheese!
Aldi just launched an ornament filled with cheese that's available in stores now for just $4.99. Choose from two designs: one with a white snowflake and one with an outline of a Christmas tree.
Inside, the ornaments contain individually wrapped cheeses, two mild cheddar and two grass-fed aged cheddar.
To get to the cheese, the plastic ball actually comes apart into two pieces that can be put back together with cheese refills, chocolates or any other Christmasy crafts.
