Detroit Police and the Detroit Fire Department are hosting Public Safety Fun Day at Palmer Park tomorrow, Aug. 15. The free community event is an effort to strengthen relationships between first responders and residents.

The event was originally set for July but was postponed because of unsafe air from Canadian wildfires.

Activities include hands-only CPR training, a meet-and-greet with Detroit police officers, safety education, voter registration and more.

For more information, go to DetroitMI.gov.

Detroit employees receive first checks under new livable wage

The City of Detroit celebrated city employees receiving their first “livable wage” checks in a video on its YouTube channel.

In the spring of 2026, Mayor Mary Sheffield signed an executive order mandating that city employees be paid no less than $21.45 per hour, or $44,616 annually.

All full-time, budgeted positions in departments under the executive branch of city government are included in the new livable wage, as well as employees of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. That includes more than 1,100 people.

In the YouTube video, Sheffield marked the achievement:

“Economic growth is not measured only in the buildings that we construct. We also must invest in the people who make this city work every single day.”

The increase amounts to an average annual salary increase of $6,400.

Lions fall to Bengals in preseason matchup

The NFL season is here. Well, the preseason, at least. The Lions had their first test yesterday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Lions lost 16-14, but standout Ahmed Hassanein showed up with a sack on starting quarterback Joe Burrow. He says he envisioned the moment before the game.

“I truly, truly prayed about it and I manifested it. And I said, ‘I’m going to sack him,’ before the game. And Coach Campbell said the same thing. I just kept telling my wife, ‘I’m going to sack Joe Burrow, I’m going to get him.’ I just kept talking to God about it, and it truly just happened.”

The Lions’ next preseason game is Aug. 22 against the Washington Commanders at Ford Field.

Tigers look to climb AL Central standings

The Tigers have managed to claw their way into second place in the American League Central and hope to continue their climb against the Chicago White Sox this weekend.

First pitch for tonight’s game is at 6:40 p.m. at Comerica Park.

Detroit City FC hosts Loudoun United

Detroit City FC faces Loudoun United FC tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Keyworth Stadium.

J. Cole brings Fall-Off Tour to Detroit

And this Sunday, the Ville comes to the Motor City as J. Cole is slated to perform at Little Caesars Arena.

The Detroit stop is part of J. Cole’s Fall-Off Tour, supporting what he has said will be his final album.

The show starts at 9:30 p.m.

Since the pandemic, overdose deaths are continuing to decline in Michigan. The number is dropping quickly in Metro Detroit. 

There are a lot of possible explanations for the decline. Narcan is more readily available, the state has turned toward a harm-reduction approach, and the pandemic, when people were cooped up inside, is further in the rearview mirror. 

Peer recovery coaches are also a big reason for the reduction. That work received significantly more money from the state in recent years.

What does it look like to create intimacy with someone struggling with addiction, and to help them recover?

Pepper Catt is a peer recovery coach with the Alliance of Coalitions for Healthy Communities. That’s a Troy nonprofit. She spoke about all this with The Metro’s Sam Corey. 

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Over the weekend in downtown Detroit, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the chest near Library Street and Grand River Avenue. Two groups of teenagers had converged outside a Gucci store. Police say there was an argument and one teen, in the chief’s words, “decided to settle it with a firearm.” The boy is expected to live.

For months, teenagers across the country have been mobilizing each other on social media and meeting up. In Detroit, it has been mostly just noise — kids hanging out, looking for something to do in a city that wasn’t built with them in mind.

Some nights, it has turned chaotic.

Last weekend alone, Detroit police detained 109 teenagers across two large gatherings downtown and at Palmer Park, almost all for breaking curfew.

The city’s answer is to give teenagers somewhere to go and enforce the rules more strictly. Mayor Mary Sheffield is working with organizers to move the gatherings into sanctioned spaces. Police are leaning into the existing curfew — 10 p.m. for kids under 16, 11 p.m. for 16 and 17-year-olds—and ticketing parents whose children break it.

One member of the Board of Police Commissioners says this isn’t enough. Darious Morris represents District 3 on the civilian board that oversees the Detroit Police Department. He joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to talk about what the city owes its teenagers, and what their parents owe them, too.

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Activists in Ypsilanti Township keep fighting to halt a data center development associated with nuclear weapons research.

Stop the Data Center members gathered following an anonymous tip about a potential groundbreaking ceremony in South Hydro Park in Ypsi Township. So far, construction details for the $1.2 billion data center have been kept under wraps by University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory officials. 

Elizabeth Jordan is a spokesperson with Stop the Data Center. She says the facility will have several buildings, including one for nuclear weapons research that will need so much energy that a new DTE substation will need to be built on location. 

“One of the buildings will account for 10% of the energy, serving as a small data center for University of Michigan to lease, while the remaining 90% will power a much larger, top-secret military data center authorized for Los Alamos to conduct nuclear weapons research,” says Jordan.

Local officials are also against the data center’s construction in Ypsilanti Township. Jordan says the political influence of the University of Michigan could move the project forward despite existing zoning restrictions and widespread local opposition. 

Jordan says Stop the Data will continue to monitor the site closely, and host monthly public meetings. 

“[Stop the Data Center] is on Instagram…we also have big monthly meetings. The next one is May 9 at 2 p.m… it’s in North Hydro Park, right across the river,” Jordan says. 

A 16-year-old student was kidnapped from a bus stop in Hamtramck at gunpoint this morning. Classmates tracked the student through their social media and cell phone.

Hamtramck Police located the student and made an arrest. Hamtramck Police Chief Hussein Farhat said that the incident happened at 7:08 a.m. He said a weapon was recovered.

Hamtramck School Board President Abdulmalik Algahaim says there will be additional measures for safety and security during pick-up and drop-off. The police department will also increase security measures. 

The kidnapper was caught within 30 minutes of the incident. 

Additional headlines for Monday, April 13, 2026

Joe Louis Greenway community meetings

Community meetings are being held regarding expansion of the Woodmere part of the Joe Louis Greenway. The next virtual meetings are April 21 and April 29.

The General Services Department is holding the meetings to discuss the designs and construction on Woodmere Street for a bike and walking connection between Fort Street and Vernor Highway.

The project has been funded through a $10 million grant and is expected to be completed in 2027. 

Outlier Earth Day event

The Outlier Media collective is hosting an Earth Day seed packing social this month. The hands-on volunteer event is in partnership with Keep Growing Detroit’s Garden Resource Program.

There will be free non-alcoholic beverages by the Gardenside Brewery and refreshments by Vámonos. The seed packing event takes place April 22nd from noon-2 p.m at Vámonos. 

Healthy Homes

The City of Detroit is hosting another Healthy Homes resource event. The next one takes place Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Services will include HOPE application assistance, health screenings and more.

People can schedule a Lyft service to attend by calling 866-313-2520. 

Black & Arab Solidarity Lab

The Black and Arab Solidarity Lab + Political Discussion is an event co-hosted by Arab Americans for Progress, Dream of Detroit, Detroit Action and MI Working Family Party.

Guest speakers include Abraham Aiyash, former MI State Representative and House Majority Leader and Tomena Rawls, the Statutory Vice chair of the 12th Congressional District Democrats. 

The discussion will be held on April 25 at 11 a.m. 

Arab and Chaldean American Panel at WSU

The Arab American Women’s Business Council is hosting a panel this week. The networking mixer will host women leaders who will share insights on navigating the professional world as Arab and Chaldean women.

The event takes place on April 15 at Wayne State University Student Center, Room 775 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

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Detroit’s police department has been collecting wins. Homicides in 2025 hit their lowest point since 1965. Carjackings dropped by nearly half. 

But over the past two weeks, another picture has emerged from inside the department’s own forensic operation.

At recent Board of Police Commissioners meetings, former forensic technicians came forward to describe conditions within the Crime Scene Services unit. What they described raises questions about safety, evidence handling, and whether the integrity of criminal cases has been compromised.

A state workplace safety agency has already cited the unit. A resident has sent those findings to city councilmembers, police commissioners, and the Wayne County Prosecutor. And a commissioner who tried to visit the facility says she had to wait two weeks — and was still unsatisfied with what she saw.

Outlier Media’s March 31 newsletter first reported on these complaints. 

Noah Kincade coordinates the Detroit Documenters program at Outlier Media. He joined Robyn Vincent to discuss conditions inside the Detroit Police Department’s Crime Scene Services unit and the response from community members and stakeholders.

Editor’s Note: The Detroit Police Department is pursuing accreditation from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. The broadcast version of this story said the accreditation was national.

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