Students from Community High School hold signs that read "Immigrants built America" and "The only ICE I like is in Heated Rivalry"(Anna Busse / Michigan Public)
A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit the Trump administration filed against Washtenaw County over its immigration enforcement policies, ruling that the county’s sheriff, prosecutor and Board of Commissioners had not violated federal law.
The federal government filed the lawsuit in April, arguing that the county officials’ refusal to aid federal immigration enforcement officers posed a danger to public safety.
Washtenaw County argued that federal law did not require local governments to assist with immigration enforcement.
U.S. District Court Judge F. Kay Behm agreed, writing that the county was exercising powers afforded to it under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
"Apparently flummoxed by the County’s decision to focus its resources on local priorities and public safety, the United States sues to demand Washtenaw County’s cooperation, the use of its jail cells, and its resources," Behm wrote.
The judge wrote that nothing in the Immigration and Nationality Act required the Washtenaw County sheriff to hold people in the county jail at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.
She also said the Trump administration was improperly attempting to compel local governments to “enforce the President’s priorities in the manner it wishes.”
The ruling represents the first major test of the administration’s legal effort to challenge Washtenaw County’s immigration enforcement policies.
"Many Detroiters were leaving money on the table," said Priscilla Perkins, the President and CEO of the Accounting Aid Society. (Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio)
State revenue in Michigan outpaced projections last month.
Reports from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency and Senate Fiscal Agency both show the state brought in around $3.1 billion in July. That translates to a nearly 7% jump in monthly revenue over July last year.
Consumption taxes, including sales, use, and so-called “sin taxes” on things like alcohol and tobacco, made up the largest chunk of revenue last month. That’s despite revenue in nearly each of those areas falling compared to this point in the last fiscal year.
Strong use tax and online gaming numbers combined with fewer dollars being issued in income tax refunds helped keep overall revenue numbers higher.
As far as business taxes go, the state has issued fewer refunds under the legacy Michigan Business Tax than it expected so far. That number could still fluctuate as refunds get claimed. Meanwhile, Corporate Income Tax Revenue fell slightly short of projections.
In all, the state’s general fund beat year-to-date revenue predictions by between $455 million and $459 million, according to the Senate and House estimates. The School Aid Fund received about $195 million to $220 million above projections.
In the bigger picture, the new revenue figures only landed a small percentage over the expected value. But at a time when Michigan will likely face tough budget years ahead, every little bit could help.
We call someone a "card” when they're especially funny or clever. However, that particular meaning of "card" comes from a much longer history of using the word to describe people with particular qualities.
Beginning in the 1500s, figurative uses of "card" grew out of card games. A “leading card,” for example, was the card used to start a round, and eventually came to refer to a strong point or advantage.
Fast forward to the 1830s, and "card" could describe someone who embodied a particular quality. You could be a “knowing card” or, more positively, a “sure card," i.e., someone you could depend on.
By the 1850s, "card" was also being used for someone who was clever or ingenious, and eventually for someone who was funny, eccentric or a bit of a character. That's the sense behind saying someone “is a card.”
There are plenty of other expressions built around the language of card games. “Trump card” dates to the 1820s, with "trump" being a shortened form of "triumph." And “playing the ___ card” emerged in the late 1800s as a way of introducing a topic in hopes of gaining sympathy or a political advantage.
Over time, that expanded into disparaging expressions such as “playing the gender card” and “playing the race card.”
To hear more about the "cards" our language holds and why someone who's a "card" might also be a "character," listen to the audio above.
Owners, Halil and Fatma Dursunoğlu.(Ronia Cabansag)
Ayasofya is Kalamazoo's only Turkish restaurant, and its owners, Halil and Fatma Dursunoğlu, feel that responsibility every time someone walks through the door. For many customers, lunch at Ayasofya has served as an introduction to gobit doner, to lahmacun, and to a whole cuisine some customers didn't even know they'd been missing.
"When you are the only one responsible to represent the Turkish food... you need to think like 100 times more than normal," Fatma said. "I have more responsibility to let them taste good food."
The husband and wife team didn't set out to run a restaurant. Fatma's an environmental engineer who spent ten years working with the United Nations on desertification and erosion. But when she moved to Michigan, she was pregnant and craving lahmacun, Turkish flatbread topped with minced meat. She couldn't find it anywhere, so she decided to make it herself.
The couple opened Ayasofya while Fatma was nine months pregnant. One day, while preparing food for a customer, she went into labor. After giving birth, she was back in the kitchen within two weeks.
"Actually, she went to labor literally from the kitchen," Halil said. "I still remember that day."
The restaurant sits in the old Bruno's pizzeria space, a spot generations of WMU students knew and loved. Fatma and her husband Halil, who teaches computer science and cybersecurity at Western, kept the plates, the forks, even the oven.
"We respect their memory," Fatma said.
On this episode, we're in the kitchen for the making of gobit doner, a Turkish sandwich filled with shaved meat, fries, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo and fresh-baked flatbread. And Fatma and Halil talk about that it means to be the only one carrying the Turkish cuisine's reputation on your shoulders.
Today on the show, an update on the Ford Fathom, Ford's new all electric truck. Plus, an acoustic brother-sister duo that reps their Michigan roots hard; and from The Dish podcast series, a lesson in Turkish flavors from a Kalamazoo couple running the city’s only Turkish restaurant.
GUESTS:
Jamie LaReau: automotive reporter, Detroit Free Press
Nolan and Karleena Kelley: brother-sister duo behind The Rusty Snails
Halil and Fatma Dursunoğlu: owners of Ayasofya Restaurant in Kalamazoo
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is giving the university $5 million to establish an athletic department and renovate facilities on campus. (Steve Carmody / Michigan Public)
The University of Michigan-Flint has been around for 70 years. But before it turns 75, university officials hope to have an active athletic department.
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is giving the university $5 million to establish an athletic department and renovate facilities on campus.
“Athletic departments are often referred to as the front porch of the university,” University Chancellor Laurance Alexander told university officials Friday. “The benefits include thriving and robust campus activities and events.”
But Alexander admits this is going to be a multi-year process, with several hurdles still to overcome.
A significant portion of the project will focus on renovating the university’s existing recreation center so it can accommodate intercollegiate athletics, as well as continuing to serve the needs of the broader university community. The proposed $34 million renovation still needs the approval by the University of Michigan Board of Regents. If approved, the project is expected to take 18 months to complete.
Alexander hopes U of M-Flint will join eight other Michigan colleges and universities competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in the fall of 2028.
“Athletics brings more than games,” said Alexander, “It brings pride, connection, and an occasional upset victory that makes the headlines.”
Labor Day looms on the horizon, but the summer isn’t over yet! If you need some ideas to get you outside and savoring the summer sun, Michigan Public has got you covered! We've gathered some of our favorite events from across Michigan this weekend. Check out some of these fun, interesting, and timely events, handpicked from event calendars by Michigan Public.
Planning to go to any of these events this weekend? Let us know how much you enjoyed it by emailing digital@michiganpublic.org.
In 2014, Camille Chippewa said she told the young men Ed Conlin was living with in Detroit that she "thought it was weird" he hadn't invited one of them to accompany him to a preseason Detroit Red Wings game. Chippewa wasn't aware of the allegations against Conlin nor the restrictions he was under. "This photograph should never have been allowed to have happened," she said. (Courtesy photo / Camille Chippewa)
Known for writing melodic, sing-along worship songs, Ed Conlin was like a “rockstar” inside the covenant Christian communities he worked with.
“People would casually refer to him as ‘Saint Ed.’ Like they saw him as someone who is holy, and was virtuous, and kind, and generous,” Noelle Lynn said of Conlin.
Lynn said she got to know Conlin when she was involved in missionary work in Detroit beginning in 2005. Lynn said Conlin took an interest in her and a few other young women she served with.
“We would say things like, ‘Oh, I'm Ed's third girl,'” Lynn recalled.
Noelle Lynn pictured from her time working in Detroit. (Noelle Lynn / Courtesy photo)
By then, The Servants of the Word brotherhood had already removed Conlin from youth work in Northern Ireland for his "improper relationships" and "misdeeds" and restricted him from working in youth programming. A decade later, the brotherhood would acknowledge it failed to both fully communicate Conlin's boundaries with people in Detroit and "maintain the separation" through oversight.
Conlin's relationship with Lynn wasn't sexual, she said, but he’d take her and other young women out individually, to a game, on walks. “I could have been an Ed Conlin victim,” she said.
Conlin worked as a substance abuse counselor at a well known soup kitchen in Detroit, and in youth activities run by various unsuspecting non-profits.
“Looking back, it's so inappropriate,” Lynn said. “But he was known for these special relationships with women and girls. And we know now that he wasn't supposed to be interacting with us that way. He actually wasn't supposed to be having anything to do with our youth's work, but he was involved in it all.”
For decades, Conlin was part of The Servants of the Word brotherhood based in Michigan. About 60 celibate men are in the ecumenical brotherhood, living communally in homes throughout the state and around the globe.
In 2005, the brotherhood allowed Conlin to move to Detroit to work after about 3 years of “discipline and recovery” at The Servants of the Word’s main home in a rural area west of Ann Arbor.
The Servants of the Word are based in a rural area in Dexter Township. (Lindsey Smith / Michigan Public)
In the late 1990s, two members of a group for at-risk youth had reported Conlin’s grooming behavior and sexual abuse in Belfast. The brotherhood has said police in Northern Ireland were notified but didn’t bring charges.
Nearly three decades later, Conlin’s been extradited from the United States and faces seven counts of indecent assault against a female.
"Ed Conlin maintains his innocence to these charges,” his attorney wrote in an emailed statement. Court records show Conlin pleaded not guilty to the charges this month. His attorney said he expects “to clear his name by being exonerated of these accusations."
The leaders of The Servants of the Word acknowledged to members in 2020 it failed to communicate “robustly and clearly enough” to people working alongside Conlin in Detroit about the sexual allegations against him and the self-imposed boundaries he was supposed to follow around young people.
An Ypsilanti woman alleged Conlin raped her when she was a teenager in a civil lawsuit she and others brought against The Servants of the Word in 2023. The law firm that filed the cases said most of the lawsuits were settled and the terms weren’t disclosed.
Conlin was “terminated” from the brotherhood the same year.
U.S. Marshals arrested him in South Bend, Indiana in May. He petitioned a federal judge for release because he said he was taking care of his disabled adult brother and he has his own health issues. He said he’d been working in food service at a hotel chain.
Lynn and others have been working for years to expose the abuse and systems in the covenant communities that allowed it. She’s been frustrated it’s taken so long.
“Through all of this, there's been these moments of just — how in the world could this not have a consequence?” Lynn reflected.
So she was “completely shocked” when she heard Conlin was arrested.
“I was just so over the moon to see that the Belfast authorities took this really seriously and that these women in Belfast, who have just been so brave and so strong, have been willing to weather this storm and keep with it,” she said. “I'm so proud of them.”
Detroit Lions' Kye Robichaux (34) runs the ball during the first half of a preseason NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Cincinnati. (Joshua A. Bickel / AP)
The University of Michigan has announced Vanderbilt Provost Cybele Raver as the university’s next president. The U of M Board of Regents is expected to vote to confirm her appointment on Sept. 1. She would begin in Ann Arbor in December.
Meanwhile, Michigan State University has announced its next athletic director.
For a look at how those changes will affect the schools' athletic departments, Michigan Public sports commentator John U. Bacon joined host Doug Tribou on Morning Edition.
Doug Tribou: The incoming president, Cybele Raver, would be starting at an unusual time for the U of M athletic department. Athletic Director Warde Manuel is on his way out. He's scheduled to leave at the end of the calendar year. And there’s the issue of how the school will address concerns raised in an independent report on the athletic department.
For the new president, what are the keys to navigating all of that successfully, in addition to the non-athletic concerns that will be on her plate?
JUB: [Laughs] Well, what are you talking about... non-athletic concerns, Doug? Is there something else to a university other than athletics?
Her plate, undeniably, is full. And yet, what will get the most attention almost always is the AD. So she has to hire a new AD — obviously that will be of paramount importance — and figure out how to handle the report that they spent $12 million on in eight months and have not issued a word of it to the public.
As you've heard me say before, they could not have handled it worse. They promised transparency and accountability and delivered zero of either. So, her first decision is how to handle that and hopefully get Michigan on the right path.
DT: Michigan has had quite a number of presidents in recent years. Meanwhile, Michigan State has had quite a number of athletic directors. And the Spartans have a new one this week. Western Michigan University AD Dan Bartholomae has accepted the job. He replaces J Batt, who left East Lansing to join the Kentucky athletic department. How do you like MSU’s choice of Dan Bartholomae?
JUB: A-plus. Bartholomae is the real deal. Under his watch they (WMU) won 37 MAC conference championships, and that's only in a few years by the way, pretty incredibly. They won the MAC football title this last year. More importantly, perhaps, they won the 2025 men's hockey national title, their first national title of any sort since men's cross country 60 some years ago.
So he's done a phenomenal job, and he knows donors as well. This should be a big success in my opinion.
DT:The Lions will play their second preseason game on Saturday when they host the Washington Commanders at Ford Field at noon. The NFL preseason is a tough way to gauge a team. The returning starters didn’t even play in the first preseason game. But more broadly, what does coach Dan Campbell need to do to bounce back after missing the playoffs last season?
JUB: Well, I would argue that Dan Campbell is a great coach. He's got some quirks in play calling, but most of them do. It's really not in his hands. He'll do a great job as he's done in the past.
What has also happened in the past is they have been, it turns out, the second-most injured team in the NFL this century. They need to get lucky on injuries, or at least not as unlucky as they've been.
Of course Mr. [Jared] Goff at quarterback needs to have a strong season. So it's mostly Dan doing what Dan does and hoping for some luck.
DT:The Tigers were hot and had a chance to make a move in their division and then the Chicago White Sox swept Detroit in a three-game series last weekend. They have now lost 5 out of their last 6 after losing a couple more to the Pirates.
Despite cooling off a bit this month, Detroit’s still very much in the hunt for a wildcard playoff spot. The Tigers are one of several teams that seem to be determined to either just get it or just miss it, so... [laughs] Any advice for Tigers fans who might just have to wonder will-they or won’t-they get in for the next six weeks?
JUB: I would take up meditation. Yoga. This team is going to drive you crazy. They blew another save this week. They have blown more saves apparently than anybody else in Major League Baseball. That means that they have the lead and they blow it in the eighth or ninth inning. Their bullpen is horrible and they've done nothing to make it better.
All you can do is cross your fingers and hope for the best and be grateful that they play in an unusually crappy division.
DT: [Laughs] A sinking tide lowers all boats or something like that.
JUB: [Laughs]
DT: All right, John, thanks a lot. Have a good weekend.
JUB: Doug, thank you.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can play the full audio of the interview near the top of this page.
The University of Michigan holds Michigan Public's broadcast license.
The right to repair movement has gained global traction in recent years. Advocates are pushing back against companies that require consumers to get new parts or repair services from the manufacturer, rather than independent providers. President Donald Trump even weighed in on the issue earlier this summer.
Wayne Fu is an associate Professor of Decision Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who writes about the movement.
"The right to repair movement has been going on for a while. Basically, the general sentiment is that people are frustrated when they try to get a service or repair. There are many cases where they have to go back to the original manufacturer, and typically then they realize the price was relatively high," Fu said.
"The movement basically started to advocate that the consumer should have their right to get a reasonable repair," Fu said, "rather than the monopolized environment that you only can go back to the original manufacturer and you are not able to bargain or there's no competition associated with the service and repair."
"How is it that we are still debating that we cannot get our product repaired?," Fu asked. "Is it that the law in the beginning had something wrong or something happened in between? Or is there a need that we really, really need this new law? If we can protect the consumer right, well, then you should have the right to repair already."
One of the reasons the movement is gaining momentum lately is an antitrust lawsuit. Earlier this summer, Michigan, along with four other states and the Federal Trade Commission, won a case against the makers of John Deere tractors. The settlement requires Deere & Company to give farmers and independent repair servicers access to the same resources it currently only provides to its own dealerships.
"[The] FTC, based on the warranty law, said that 'Okay, John Deere, you could not do that.'" Fu said.
"And why the case is so significant is over time we finally see that — I shouldn't say finally, but we are very excited to see that — the government actually taking action and then has a lot more clear guidance on how these issues should evolve," Fu said.
The case is an example of successful enforcement of the original 1975 law.
"If you want the movement to be successful, eventually it will get down to the enforcement," Fu said.
President Trump recently released a memorandum that included what he called an "Individual Freedom to Fix." He says he wants the Environmental Protection Agency to cut back enforcement of repair limits. But Fu says this is an effort to deregulate emissions under the guise of right to repair. He says this risks splitting a movement that began as a sustainability effort.
"That's actually the starting point of my research," Fu said. "Because of the difficulty of getting a repair, the consumer had a tendency to dump the products."
The manufacturer would like you to buy [a new] product, rather than fix the old product in order to increase their revenue and then get greater profit," he said. "And that has a significant impact on the environment. So, assuming we can get things repaired properly, then we probably can — well, I won't say minimize, but at least can mitigate — the unnecessary environmental impact that we have nowadays in our society."
Fu also had some advice for consumers: "Don't get scared by the manufacturer's current tactic. The warranty voidance is generally illegal, and you should be able to seek out an independent service if needed and then get a reasonable repair."
"And for the government," he said, "I think the angle we try to emphasize is that the mechanism was there. The reinforcement is still the key for the success."
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can play the full audio of this interview near the top of this page.
Honestly, I don't think I'll ever understand how some <a href="https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-08-19/christian-crusader-rally-meets-resistance-in-dearborn-where-officials-extol-diversity-tolerance" target="_blank" link-data="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000179-84c8-d933-ad7f-f5f846b10000","_type":"ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20"},"cms.content.publishDate":1787256500739,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000190-26c7-da39-a3fe-ffdf0eab0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.content.updateDate":1787256500739,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000190-26c7-da39-a3fe-ffdf0eab0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.directory.paths":[],"anchorable.showAnchor":false,"link":{"cms.directory.paths":[],"attributes":[],"linkText":"people ","target":"NEW","attachSourceUrl":false,"url":"https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-08-19/christian-crusader-rally-meets-resistance-in-dearborn-where-officials-extol-diversity-tolerance","_id":"000001a0-20c9-d51c-adfc-ededdb010000","_type":"ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a"},"_id":"000001a0-20c9-d51c-adfc-ededdb010001","_type":"809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288"}">people </a>who purport to be Christian so thoroughly miss the actual teachings of Jesus Christ.(John Auchter / For Michigan Public)
Honestly, I don't think I'll ever understand how some people who purport to be Christian so thoroughly miss the actual teachings of Jesus Christ.
A Poweshiek skipperling perched on a blade of prairie grass. The species is found only in the upper Midwest in prairies and prairie fens, a type of wetland community.(David Pavlik)
A tiny butterfly species native to the Midwest has been brought back from the brink of extinction, researchers say.
The poweshiek skipperling — an inch-long fuzzy species, brown with orange highlights — used to be found in several Midwestern states and Canadian provinces but by 2022 researchers only found nine of them in the U.S.
Nick Haddad, a professor of integrated biology at Michigan State University's Kellogg Biological Station, is on a team that's raising the butterflies in captivity at the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids for release into the wild. He said Michigan is a hotspot for rare butterflies.
“Our work is to preserve and restore and recover the species that have been in rapid decline,” Haddad said. “As areas are restored where they used to be, we can release them back out.”
This effort combines biology scientists and conservation specialists who have worked with the zoo to create a space accommodating of the species. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Zoo, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are also involved.
The project began in 2021 and brought those nine known wild skipperlings up to 1,300 and counting.
“Through that partnership we’ve been able to not just just keep butterflies in captivity, but grow captive populations at an enormous rate,” he said. “That’s not an easy task, to have butterflies in a cage, male and female, and actually get them to breed.”
Because the project has been able to raise reproduction rates so much, it had a captive population breeding while they release others into the wild. The wild butterflies also lay eggs so the population grows in both groups. Recently, the wild butterfly populations finally exceeded those in captivity.
“Just to put this in context, in nature, a population that is sustaining, we’d expect one male and female that are reproducing to create around one male and one female,” he said. “That’s a sustaining population, it’s not growing or shrinking. But in captivity we don’t have natural, harsh environmental conditions. We can produce thousands of new adults with a couple dozen adults.”
He said the tiny butterflies used to have hundreds of populations, but by the start of the project, there were only three: One in Manitoba, Canada and two in Southeast Michigan.
“My suspicion is mainly because of new classes and uses of toxic insecticides,” he said, but habitat loss is another main reason for their decline.
He said reduced use of those insecticides is necessary for the program to continue working.
“We have now established the restoration sites and context where we can be successful,” he said. “But that is still just a limited part of the butterflies former range. We have the tools to act both by reducing insecticides and then by doing the conservation of habitat. I do think it can be done.”
Butterfly populations across the board have decreased 25% in the last 20 years. Other pollinators have also seen decreased populations.
Butterflies are important in keeping plant communities alive, helping them reproduce through pollination.
Haddad said there is also a moral cost of driving a species out of existence.
“There is an ethical obligation, and I think others agree, that we shouldn’t be the cause of their total loss, their extinction,” he said. “So we’re putting in the efforts for conservation.”
The group is looking to do the same kind of work for another endangered butterfly species, the Mitchell's Satyr butterfly, and more after that.
He said the program does show how putting the effort in can make a huge difference.
“If we think about the time span of 25 years to see this rapid decline to near extinction, well, to get them on the right track even at a low level after five years is really encouraging,” he said. “And so hopefully a decade from now or two decades from now, we'll see the population thriving across the landscape.”
The Detroit skyline pictured in a 2019 report( <a href="https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2020-08/2019%20Annual%20Report.pdf" target="_blank" link-data="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000179-84c8-d933-ad7f-f5f846b10000","_type":"ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20"},"cms.content.publishDate":1778802609646,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-95e3-dada-a9ff-fdeb3d1e0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.content.updateDate":1778802609646,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-95e3-dada-a9ff-fdeb3d1e0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.directory.paths":[],"anchorable.showAnchor":false,"link":{"cms.directory.paths":[],"attributes":[],"linkText":"City of Detroit","target":"NEW","attachSourceUrl":false,"url":"https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2020-08/2019%20Annual%20Report.pdf","_id":"0000019e-28e5-d215-a5df-bcf782940000","_type":"ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a"},"_id":"0000019e-28e5-d215-a5df-bcf782940001","_type":"809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288"}">City of Detroit</a>)
Detroit is restarting a program that ended last year for homeowners facing foreclosure for unpaid property taxes.
That's after the state legislature renewed support for the program, called Pay as You Stay, or PAYS.
PAYS gives homeowners with delinquent property taxes three years to pay the balance, after forgiving the interest and fines.
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said low-income Detroiters facing this situation need to know there is help.
"Our neighborhoods are the heart and soul of Detroit, but keeping our neighborhoods strong means keeping the people who have invested in them strong," Sheffield said at a press conference on Thursday.
Detroit offers access to the PAYS program to homeowners who apply and qualify for a second program, called Homeowners Property Exemption, or HOPE. The exemption from paying any property taxes is now available for up to two years.
City officials say since 2020, the PAYS and HOPE programs have kept nearly 18,000 Detroiters from losing homes to foreclosure.
Josh Tewolde said he hopes the lawsuit prompts conversation about transparency.(The Mackinac Center for Public Policy)
A college student is suing Genesee County after he says the county unlawfully refused to provide him with public records about its use of Flock Cameras.
Josh Tewolde is a Genesee County resident and a student at Kettering University. He’s been interested in automated license plate readers — like those produced by Flock Safety — for years, even constructing one while in high school.
Earlier this year, he filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Genesee County, asking for information about its use of Flock cameras. That included the county’s contract with the company, a map of the camera’s locations, access logs for the camera's data, and records of scans involving his own vehicle.
Tewolde said he planned to make the data public so Genesee County residents can make a informed decision about the future of Flock in their community.
“As it stands now, it's a one-way camera,” Tewolde said. “The government can see you, but you cannot see back into the government. The government is not transparent. And so long as it remains this way, I think that the cameras are a threat to privacy rights more broadly”
According to the lawsuit, the county denied most of the request, claiming the majority of the documents are property of Flock and therefore not subject to public records requests.
But Flock publicly maintains that its customers own the data its cameras collect. Moreover, according to the suit, Genesee County’s contract with the company — which it provided to Tewolde — says the same thing.
“To see Genesee County, where I lived all my life, use a reason that's contradicted by their own internal policy to deny the public their right to government transparency was really disappointing,” Tewolde said.
So, he reached out to Steve Delie, a senior attorney at the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. The foundation is part of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank.
Delie agreed to take the case, and on Tuesday they filed a complaint in the Genesee County 7th Judicial Circuit Court. Delie said if the government is working with a private company like Flock — even if Flock does own the records — those records are public property.
"Government can’t simply contract away transparency obligations,” Delie said. “You can't rely on a third party and then say ‘well, that's a third party, those records are no longer public.’”
Tewolde said he hopes the court forces Genesee County to give him the records, and that it prompts a broader conversation about transparency.
“With this, we have a chance to really draw a line in the sand and say that government cannot hide behind contractors or third parties to prevent the release of government records,” Tewolde said. “If we're paying for something with our tax dollars, we deserve to know what's going on.”
Genesee County and Flock Safety did not respond to a request for comment.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story spelled Tewolde incorrectly. It has been fixed.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers speaks at an event on October 29, 2024.(Steve Carmody / Michigan Public)
Some Michigan Democrats came out in support of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers Thursday.
Rogers is working to siphon off party members who voted against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed during this month’s primary election. The close race saw Democrats split between El-Sayed’s endorsement of progressive policies and Congresswoman Haley Stevens’ (D-MI 11) more moderate views.
Rogers said he's only asking Democrats for the chance to earn their trust.
“Michigan deserves a senator who will sit down, whether you voted for me or not, who will listen to you, will treat you with respect, who will represent everybody,” he said during an event in Detroit Thursday.
As far as policies in his platform geared toward Democrats, Rogers said he’d be focused on improving children’s literacy, making homes more affordable, and helping people boost their credit scores.
Democrats who spoke included Huntington Woods Rabbi Asher Lopatin, state Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit), and a self-described Obama, Clinton, and Biden voter. Their reasons for being unsatisfied with El-Sayed varied.
Lopatin felt El-Sayed and some other Democrats have been complicit in antisemitism.
“The fact that they have not spoken out against that is very disappointing,” he said before speaking well of Rogers’ character.
El-Sayed has, in fact, spoken out against antisemitism, and he told NBC News earlier this month, "I love and revere Judaism and the Jewish people,” drawing a line between faith and culture, and the Israeli government.
Whitsett, who has most recently been a reliable vote for House Republicans when she comes to Lansing, didn’t directly criticize El-Sayed. Rather, she claimed Medicare for All, a hallmark of El-Sayed’s platform, would over-involve government in healthcare.
“The government will be controlling your healthcare. They will control your doctors, they will control your medication, they will control your visits, they will control everything,” Whitsett said.
No mainstream candidate is advocating for complete government control of healthcare.
The El-Sayed campaign responded to Rogers Thursday by tying him to President Donald Trump’s policies.
“Mike Rogers will put Donald Trump ahead of Michigan every single time. Just like he carried water for Trump’s dangerous election lies, he’ll rubber-stamp Trump’s reckless agenda — driving up gas prices and sending your tax dollars to fight foreign wars," El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Cole Wozniak said in an emailed statement.
"Abdul's the only candidate with a coalition that can win this November and will get right to work in the US Senate getting money out of politics and putting money in your pockets,” the statement continued.
Both candidates’ chances of winning in November hinge on how well either camp can attract independent voters to their team while keeping their base intact.
Silver carp in the Illinois River jump in reaction to electrofishing.(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has detected invasive carp in the Illinois River only 80 miles from Lake Michigan. That's the closest the fish are known to have gotten to the Great Lakes and hundreds were detected.
Officials from the department also suspect there could be spawning grounds closer to the Great Lake and are monitoring the area further. They say floods and water temperatures made great conditions for carp spawning.
Andrea Densham, the Director of Regional Government Affairs at Alliance for the Great Lakes, said the invasive carp would be detrimental to Great Lakes ecosystems. She said there was supposed to be a bi-partisan construction project to stop the spread of the carp happening this summer, but the US Army Corp of Engineers ordered a stop work order without explanation.
“We’ve been working with the states and federal government for years to advance this project,” she said. “One thing we would love is some more transparency and clarity on why it has paused. If there are identified challenges, it’s always helpful for any entity that’s pausing a really critically important project like this to share those. There’s been no explanation for the pause.”
Planning of the project has been going on for years. Construction on the project is seasonal and began in July but earlier this month it was paused. Those involved with the project don’t know when it will be resumed and workers on the project are stuck in limbo.
“We’re hoping they allow the hardworking workers on site to get back to work,” she said. “This is very much a seasonal project so any delays absolutely delays the extent to which the solution to prevent the carp from entering the Great Lakes can advance.”
The project uses a variety of deterrents including electrical, acoustic, and even bubble deterrents to stop the carp from moving any further upriver.
Electrical grids have been used before to keep out fish species but were found to be only part of the solution. The mix of deterrents will help increase its reliability.
The layout of the Brandon Road Project form the US Army Corp of Engineers( US Army Corp of Engineers)
The project was allotted $274 million in federal funding and $114 million in state funding to begin the first phase of construction. The project’s total cost will be around $1.15 billion dollars but the region’s fisheries are also economically important, valuing over $4 billion per year.
Densham said delaying this project puts the sensitive fisheries at risk, especially for struggling species like whitefish. Michigan’s state budget included emergency one-time funding for whitefish restoration earlier this year because the species is in a crisis situation.
“The challenges to whitefish and the fear that the whitefish might be threatened in Lake Michigan is of even greater concern when there might be the introduction of invasive carp,” she said. “We need to prevent that from happening.”
Quagga mussels, zebra mussels, and sea lamprey have already contributed to the decline of the whitefish. She said carp will eat its way up the food chain.
While grass carp have already been introduced to the Great Lakes to control algae and for nuisance plant control, only sterile grass carp can be stocked but bighead, silver, and black carp are spreading in the Mississippi River and Illinois River. These carp will threaten walleye, yellow perch, and whitefish specifically but can also change the entire ecosystem overall.
Densham said the fish also pose risks to humans.
“They’re even dangerous for anglers and families being near lakes or rivers where they are.” she said. “They’re very large, they’re very aggressive, and they can jump out of the bodies of water they’re in. They’ve been known to jump in boats.”
Densham said none of the partners on the project received any explanation or answers on why it was halted.
“We are working to understand the reasons construction has been halted on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project for federal administrative review,” Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources stated in an email. “Michigan continues to remain committed to supporting the completion of the project to protect the Great Lakes and inland lakes and streams throughout the basin from invasive carp.”
Michigan, Illinois, and the federal government all dedicated money to the project and President Trump even directed agencies to construct the project with speed and efficiency.
“What’s most frustrating is that we have no clarity for why this happened,” she said. “The workers are out there. There’s a very short window of time for us to do this kind of work and as we’re seeing more spawning events continue to happen the urgency continues to grow.”
The virus detections in mosquito pools this week "are a reminder that local mosquitoes are active and capable of spreading illness," said Brendan Earl, Supervising Sanitarian at Kent County Health Department. (ANAKE:0817002864/anake - stock.adobe.com / 259349672)
A potentially deadly case of a mosquito-borne illness has turned up in Michigan.
A Roscommon County resident has tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis. It’s the first human case of EEE in Michigan since 2021.
The virus is spread to people when they're bitten by an infected mosquito. Only a few human cases are reported each year in the United States, but the cases can be serious. EEE has a 30% fatality rate for infected humans, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
People who become ill with EEE may experience fever, headache, chills and nausea. In some cases, symptoms may progress to inflammation of the brain, signaled by disorientation, seizures, and coma.
To avoid EEE and other mosquito-borne illnesses, state health officials are offering a number of tips:
Use insect repellents with one of the following active ingredients: DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus or para-menthane-diol and 2-undecanone.
Do not use insect repellent on children under 2 months old. Instead, dress the child in clothing that covers arms and legs. Also, cover cribs, strollers, and baby carriers with mosquito netting.
Wear shoes and socks, light-colored long pants, and long-sleeved shirts when outdoors.
Make sure screens on doors and windows are tight-fitting. Repair or replace damaged screens.
Once a week eliminate standing water that can support mosquito breeding near your home, including water in bird baths, abandoned swimming pools, wading pools, and old tires.
Multiple state departments and local health departments already monitor for signs of EEE in humans, mosquitos, domestic animals, and wildlife. However, MDHHS reports additional mosquito trapping and testing is being done in Roscommon County to establish the level of risk in that area.
Papyrus Conservation Summer Seminar student Shijin (Giada) Jiang examines a papyrus fragment at the University of Michigan, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)(Mike Householder/AP Photo/Mike Householder / AP)
Shijin Jiang pulled the precision binocular headband magnifier over her eyes and hunched down within a few inches of the ancient text resting on a light board.
Using a pair of hand tools, Shijin carefully inspected the sheet made from the papyrus plant, proceeding with the utmost care. After all, it most likely hadn’t been handled in a century — nor read for thousands of years.
The Papyrus Conservation Summer Seminar at the University of Michigan is the only one of its kind in the Americas, according to the university. And it's one of the few in the world designed to convey the best practices for conserving papyrus manuscripts, ancient texts written on rolls or sheets made from the papyrus plant.
“If you touch this papyrus, you can feel the history,” said Shijin, a native of China who was among nine scholars from across the globe, including Ireland, Italy and the U.S., who took the 10-day course.
Michigan’s Papyrology Collection covers texts and documents from 1000 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E. No institution on this side of the world has more of them, the Ann Arbor school said, giving the researchers access to a vast collection of ancient papyri. There are portions of the Homer epics, “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad,” writings by the philosopher Epicurus and the oldest-known copy of the Epistles of Paul.
“Carrying on this tradition is an incredible responsibility, but it also is incredibly fun and rewarding, because there’s nothing I love more than getting people together from all over the world, sharing ideas, learning from each other,” said Marieka Kaye, who manages library preservation services for physical collections at the University of Michigan Library.
Kaye said she tried to make “things comfortable and not scary, because a lot of people just feel terrified working on these ancient things.”
The seminar introduced the papyrologists and conservators to techniques in the treatment, storage and care of the ancient texts, as well as documentation practices. Papyrus and its ink can crumble, smear or break, so Kaye encouraged the students to carefully remove dirt, sand, salt and debris; use controlled moisture to soften folds and realign fibers; and dry the papyrus slowly under light weight to prevent curling.
The first seminar was held in 2012, and they have been held every two years since, except for the 2020 pandemic year. About 50 students total have taken part.
“If we don’t train the next generations of conservators, this is a craft that is going to be lost,” said Giuliano Sidro, curator of Michigan's Papyrology Collection.
Michigan has so many papyrus manuscripts on hand that its researchers haven’t gone through them all. Some of the items were acquired, while others were excavated, during university expeditions to the ancient site of Karanis, Egypt, from 1924-35. Francis Willey Kelsey, a Latin professor who died in 1927, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Papyrology Collection. He believed Michigan students studying the ancient world needed access not only to books, but to the tangible remains of antiquity. Today, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is a fixture on the Michigan campus. Its collection represents one of the finest compilations of daily-life objects from Greco-Roman Egypt located outside of Cairo.
“This is a place where you make discoveries, potentially every day, if you just go into the vault, pick out a box and open something up, and you start reading,” Sidro said.
Of course, to make sense of it, one needs to be able to decipher Arabic, ancient Greek or Latin, and even Egyptian, one of the earliest known written languages that is now extinct. A few of the seminar participants were able to read the papyri, including Arzak Mohamed, who reads Arabic, and Mauro Castiello, a papyrology doctoral student in Milan, who can translate ancient Greek and Latin.
Kaye said she always tries to include a student from Egypt among the seminar participants.
Mohamed, a postdoctoral fellow at Macquarie University in Sydney, had heard about the papyrus seminar for years and always wanted to attend. The 42-year-old mother of three is from Fayoum, Egypt, not far from Karanis.
“Now, I can transfer this information from Michigan to Egypt and even in Australia,” she said. “I will be like the chain, connecting between the three countries.”
“By saving this information, we can transfer the knowledge to the next generation,” she added.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel plans to file a sixth request for rehearing with the United States Department of Energy over a coal-fired power plant near Lake Michigan operated by Consumers Energy.
“After six so-called emergency orders, it is clear that DOE intends to stretch Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to force an aging, obsolete plant to operate indefinitely,” Nessel said.
The J.H. Campbell power plant was scheduled to close in May 2025 but has been forced to remain open after the federal department issued six consecutive orders lasting over a year after President Donald Trump stated there was an energy emergency.
The request for rehearing is a necessary administrative step before the order can be challenged in court.
Gavin McCabe, senior litigating counsel for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright upheld the emergency orders after the first five rehearings.
The first federal emergency order from May 2025 is now being challenged in an active lawsuit that already had some oral arguments, McCabe said.
“We are anticipating a decision anytime,” he said. “The court doesn’t have a deadline to decide, but roughly it takes three to six months.”
He said if the plant is allowed to close after the court’s decision, the other challenges will potentially become moot so those cases have been put on hold.
“In some way they are all connected even though they are issued separately and have different numbers on them, but we are challenging each of them,” he said.
Ted Kelly, the director and lead counsel for U.S. clean energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the plant is unnecessary and there is no energy emergency.
“They never had proof there’s an energy emergency,” Kelly said. “The retirement of the Campbell plant was part of a careful plan by the utility Consumers Energy, the state of Michigan, and the grid operator where they brought other generation online to replace this coal plant. They replaced it with cleaner, cheaper resources.”
He said a provision of the Federal Power Act is supposed to be used for taking immediate action in situations like war or weather events, and that’s how it’s been used in the past until now.
“There was no need for this,” Kelly said. “That’s been reflected in a number of reviews by the grid operator and by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which reviews reliability nationwide. They found the system was reliable and did not have a need for any emergency action.”
The U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement that the Energy Reliability Corporation’s 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment supports keeping the plant open. The department quoted the long-term assessment in one of its justifications for the emergency order: “Projected resource additions do not keep pace with escalating demand forecasts and announced generator retirements.”
The Electric Reliability Corporation also released a statement in April which said if additional power plants are built without delay, the region’s risk of power outages would be “elevated” until 2027 but then fall to “normal” risk in later years.
McCabe said he believes the court will find the statute is being used illegally, but there is always a chance it rules the other way.
Running the plant is costly.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Consumers Energy's request to charge operating costs of the plant to residents within the north and central regions of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator — the organization that operates the power grid in Michigan and several other states and a Canadian province.
“Causing it to run unnecessarily just imposes those costs on people who shouldn’t be having to pay for it,” said McCabe, with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That is in addition to the fact that the Campbell plant is a large source of air pollution and water pollution.”
He said the statute the federal government is using to compel Consumers to keep the plant operational means ratepayers, not the government, pay the cost of running the power plant.
The energy sources that were supposed to replace the plant included natural gas, battery storage, and solar energy, all of which would cost less for residents and be better for the environment overall, Kelly said. He argued that operating the plant has the potential for especially devastating environmental consequences because it sits less than a mile from Lake Michigan.
One report from the consulting firm Grid Strategies, commissioned by several environmental advocacy groups, found the J.H. Campbell plant could cost ratepayers in the MISO region $139 million dollars per year due to the federal mandates, and Nessel said Consumers Energy has reported $295 million dollars in costs associated with the plant since May 2025.
This comes after unrelated price hikes earlier this summer from Consumers Energy.
Nessel said the cost of operating the plant beyond its planned retirement should not be falling on Michiganders.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars of unnecessary costs are stacking up and Michigan families will be forced to foot the bill to keep online a plant that should have been retired more than a year ago," she said.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright previously stated the Energy Department was keeping the plant open to mitigate the risk of power outages for American families.
“Americans deserve access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining,” he said.
The Department of Energy did not respond to our request for comment.
Editor's note: Consumers Energy is among Michigan Public's corporate sponsors.
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