A Jewish children’s author and public school teacher has filed a lawsuit accusing Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit and Lake Orion Community Schools of violating her civil rights and misusing taxpayer dollars by forcing her to teach religion under a state-funded program intended for secular instruction. The case, brought by Lisa Rose in Oakland County Circuit Court, centers on Michigan’s “shared-time” services program, which allows public school districts to provide non-essential, secular classes — such as art, music, and library science — at private schools. Under the arrangement, Lake Orion hired Rose to teach library classes at Hillel, a Jewish day school in Farmington Hills.

An 18-year-old Highland Park man was charged with homicide and a hate crime Monday in connection with the brutal death of a transgender woman of color whose body was found behind a laundromat in Detroit. Malique Javon Fails is accused of fatally assaulting Christina Hayes, 28, of Taylor, on June 21 before robbing her of cash and a cellphone.

A former hotel manager has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Amerilodge Group CEO Asad Malik of sexually harassing and assaulting her during a company outing to a Justin Timberlake concert in Detroit earlier this year, and then retaliating against her when she reported the incident. Stephanie Starling, who managed the Courtyard Marriott in Bay City, alleges Malik groped her and tried to force a kiss during the Feb. 20 concert at Little Caesars Arena.

As an emergency room nurse in a rural community, and a mom whose daughter has multiple disabilities, I am appalled by Congress’ passage of President Trump’s cruelly named “Big Beautiful Bill,” which will result in millions of people losing their Medicaid coverage. But we still have our voices — and our votes — and advocates around the country are working to reverse these cuts. There’s a role for everyone to play, especially during Congress’ August recess.

Corporate greed drives up costs. Recently, corporations have begun using technology to raise prices in new ways and without your knowledge. Why should big grocery store chains be allowed to use facial recognition technology, digital price tags, and our personal information to price gouge?

A Detroit man says his ex-partner falsely accused him of molesting their daughter and alleges her powerful, politically connected family helped her get a felony charge dismissed for filing a false police report. The ex-partner, Taylor Clark, is the granddaughter of retired Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway, whose cousin Richard Hathaway is the chief assistant at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

The first time I ever felt the pure thrill of live music was at a summer festival in Detroit. I was young, wide-eyed and buzzing from the electricity that filled the air as soon as the first bassline hit the speakers.

A Wayne County judge on Wednesday ordered the Detroit City Clerk’s Office to follow election transparency laws after a lawsuit alleged officials began processing and tabulating absentee ballots early without public notice. Robert Davis, a citizen watchdog, filed the emergency lawsuit against the clerk’s office on Monday, alleging the city began processing and tabulating absentee ballots last week without taking the legal steps required to do so.

Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield and Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. will square off in the general election for mayor of Detroit after becoming the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary. Sheffield, who has built a progressive record as council president, dominated the nine-candidate field, receiving 50.8% of the votes, while Kinloch garnered 17.4%.

Who is Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan really? For nearly four decades in public office, Duggan has aligned himself with the Democratic Party. As a three-term mayor, he campaigned for presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.

For many working families and seniors, getting access to healthy, affordable food is not taken for granted. I know this because I see this every day in my job. But right now, the communities I serve are going to face a whiplash from funding cuts that help put food on the table.

Two white Flint cops were caught on video indiscriminately spraying a crowd of Black people at a food truck over the weekend, violently pushing another man, and arresting a professional boxer for dancing. The incident occurred at about 2 a.m.

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.