The Detroit City Clerk’s Office violated a law intended to protect election transparency by processing and tabulating absentee ballots early without alerting the public or taking other required steps, a Highland Park activist alleges in a lawsuit to be filed in federal court Monday. Robert Davis, a citizen watchdog of election practices, says the city began processing and tabulating absentee ballots on Thursday without taking the legal steps required to do so.

Two right-wing fraudsters charged in a robocall scheme aimed at suppressing turnout of Black voters in Detroit in 2020 pleaded no contest to felony charges Friday. Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, who have a history of spreading hoaxes and outlandish conspiracy theories, face up to seven years in prison when they are sentenced in Wayne County Circuit Court on Dec. 1.

A controversial steam pipeline project in Detroit’s historic Lafayette Park was quietly pushed forward by city officials while members of Mayor Mike Duggan’s family stood to benefit from its approval, Metro Times has learned. Internal city emails and planning documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show top members of Duggan’s administration worked behind the scenes to override historic preservation staff and steer the project through Detroit’s Historic District Commission (HDC), despite warnings it would cause irreversible damage to the nationally recognized landscape. At the center of the project is 1300 Lafayette East, a luxury cooperatively owned tower near downtown where boilers failed in 2022 and several of Duggan’s family members live.

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is expected to cost Michigan more than $1 billion, forcing steep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food assistance that support millions of lower-income residents. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law on July 4, reduces taxes to corporations and wealthy Americans and increases funding to the military and immigration enforcement. But to pay for it, the Republican-led bill slashes federal spending on Medicaid and the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), shifting those costs onto cash-strapped states.

A motorcycle dashcam caught a dramatic incident on Wednesday evening when a man lost control of his car and wound up driving through a building in Midtown. The video, posted on Facebook by Khanh Cai, shows a 2017 Ford Fusion being driven along Woodward Avenue as it begins to drift. It then rides up over the curb of a QLine stop and swerves just feet away from the motorcyclist before it hits another vehicle and smashes through the front door of 5708 Woodward Ave., coming to a stop at the other side of the building.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a longtime Democrat who is running for governor as an independent, is raking in Republican cash and outside dark money in his election bid, raising questions about his political shift. Campaign finance records show Duggan raised $3.2 million in direct campaign donations for the year through July 20, outpacing Democratic frontrunner Jocelyn Benson and Republican candidates John James and Aric Nesbitt.

The University of Michigan is ramping up its crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests by bringing disciplinary charges against 11 current and former students and creating a new role that works with the police department to handle punishment, activists tell Metro Times. The charges stem from campus protests from 10 to 14 months ago. The University of Michigan Board of Regents, which has repeatedly targeted students who have spoken out about Israel’s war in Gaza, brought the charges under a newly revised student code of conduct, according to TAHRIR Coalition, a grassroots pro-Palestinian group.

A judge on Thursday upheld a temporary restraining order that blocks Detroit Thermal from running steam lines though the historic Lafayette Park neighborhood in Detroit, forcing 600 residents of a nearby high-rise apartment to find another source of heat for the winter. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry sided with residents of the nearby townhomes, who filed a lawsuit on July 1 accusing the utility of trespassing and damaging a nationally and city-protected landscape to run steam lines to the nearby 1300 Lafayette high-rise.

A Wayne County judge has barred a blockchain-based real estate company and its affiliates from collecting rent or evicting residents at hundreds of their distressed rental homes in Detroit, unless the properties are brought up to code and receive certificates of compliance from the city. The court order, signed Tuesday by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry, marks a significant development in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the city of Detroit against Florida-based Real Token, its founders Remy and Jean-Marc Jacobson, and more than 165 shell companies tied to their blockchain business.

A battle over a controversial steam project in Detroit’s Lafayette Park Historic District is boiling over as residents accuse utility company Detroit Thermal of trespassing, violating permit conditions, and using intimidation tactics in an effort to install underground steam lines through their historic neighborhood. Leaders of the cooperatively owned townhomes in Lafayette Park say Detroit Thermal resumed construction this month in defiance of a temporary restraining order, prompting renewed outrage and a call for city officials to intervene.

It sounds like something straight out of the TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. A series of viral social media posts claim five women in Detroit have been found dead with tea bags stuffed in their mouths — allegedly the work of a serial murderer dubbed the “Tea Bag Killer” in retaliation for using a controversial smartphone app to gossip. But Detroit police say there is absolutely no truth behind the lurid tale.

This reporting series from Planet Detroit examines the growing role of community health workers (CHWs) in Michigan — trusted professionals who assist residents in navigating housing, food access, chronic illnesses, and the health care system. Proposed Medicaid cuts could undermine funding for these workers, who often come from the same communities they serve. By building trust and drawing on lived experience, CHWs are addressing critical gaps in care that traditional health systems often overlook.

Shanon Seymore had given up. Diagnosed with a rare bleeding disorder called von Willebrand disease, she was in constant pain, unable to work, and on the verge of eviction from her Pontiac home. “Nobody was listening,” she said.

When Terry Pita’s doctor told her she needed to start insulin, she burst into tears. “I just didn’t want to take shots,” she said. “I still cringe.”

Regina Gully knows what it’s like to need help and not know where to turn. Now, as a community health worker with Trinity Health, she spends her days making sure others don’t have to feel that way. “We treat everyone with kindness and respect,” she said.

Community health workers are a vital but often overlooked part of Michigan’s health system, especially as recent federal Medicaid cuts threaten coverage and funding for essential services. They help people manage chronic illnesses, apply for health insurance, find food or housing, and understand what their doctor told them. If you’ve never heard of a CHW or aren’t sure if one could help you, this guide breaks it down.

Now we may never know who was wearing that duck costume at the Halloween garden party. Or for that matter, who killed Alice’s dog. In the Metro Times last month, Bill Krebs, Grosse Pointe Park native and co-creator of the NBC primetime soap-satire Grosse Pointe Garden Society, made an impassioned plea to readers to watch reruns of the show’s first season on the network’s streaming service, Peacock.

Family, friends, and the attorney for Stephen Mason are calling on Michigan State Police to release video footage of the fatal May 16 shooting by a state trooper in Detroit, citing conflicting eyewitness accounts and a growing suspicion of a coverup. They’re also urging state Attorney General Dana Nessel to appoint an independent special prosecutor, saying the state cannot fairly investigate itself.

Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, the longtime leader of one of Detroit’s most influential Black churches, acknowledged Monday night that he had “an inappropriate relationship” with a former church member, but he denies many of the explosive allegations she made in a series of now-deleted TikTok videos. The former member, Melody Walker, said the relationship began in 2002 when she was 22 and Ellis was 47, and continued off and on until about 2018.