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.

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.

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.

A coalition demanding police transparency and accountability is calling on Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to stop the city’s police department from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a controversial immigration raid that led to three arrests, including two protesters. In a letter sent to Duggan last week, the Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability urged Duggan to direct the Detroit Police Department to adopt a “non-cooperation” policy with ICE and take steps to protect Detroiters from federal immigration enforcement.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is once again under fire for targeting pro-Palestinian activists, this time for sending agents and Ann Arbor police to serve subpoenas at their homes in what organizers call a pattern of intimidation and repression. The TAHRIR Coalition, a grassroots pro-Palestinian group, said two of its members were visited by police and agents from Nessel’s office last week, including one activist whose family in West Bloomfield was questioned about their whereabouts, even after agents acknowledged knowing the person no longer lived there. The subpoenas, issued by Nessel, order the activists to appear for questioning at the attorney general’s office on July 30, in connection to ongoing investigations stemming from April raids that targeted organizers across Ann Arbor, Canton, and Ypsilanti.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan picked up a major endorsement Thursday in his independent bid for Michigan governor, but it should come to no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. The Detroit Regional Chamber’s political action committee unanimously endorsed Duggan more than 15 months before the 2026 election, an unusually early decision that follows months of the group’s favorable polling about the mayor’s prospects.

Every day, Krystal Clark struggles to breathe. The 41-year-old incarcerated woman believes mold at Michigan’s only women’s prison is poisoning her body, growing in her lungs, eating through her ears, and slowly destroying her health while prison officials deny her proper care.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is urging Congress to curb what she calls dangerous and deceptive tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who have been detaining people across the country while wearing masks, plainclothes, and driving unmarked vehicles. In a letter co-signed by 20 other attorneys general, Nessel asked federal lawmakers to pass legislation that would generally prohibit ICE agents from concealing their identity and require them to display proper identification and agency insignia.

As Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan courts voters in his campaign for Michigan governor, many voters are wondering whether he would welcome support from one of the country’s most polarizing figures — Elon Musk. Duggan has raised questions over his apparent flirtation with Musk, who in June posted online about launching a new political movement. Duggan, who is running as an independent, replied at the time with a smiling emoji and wrote, “Now you’ve got my attention.”

WDET, Detroit’s beloved public radio station known for its independent journalism and deep ties to the local music scene, is fighting for its future as President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on the media. A Trump-backed House bill, which passed by just two votes on June 12, would claw back $1.1 billion in already-approved funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a lawsuit against two men accused of creating fake companies to harass and intimidate small business owners in Ferndale in an attempt to extort money, her office announced Wednesday. The lawsuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, alleges Eric Vander Ley, with the help of his brother Daniel Vander Ley, formed 17 limited liability companies using the exact names of well-known Ferndale businesses, including Como’s Restaurant, Urbanrest Brewing Company, Bags and Beads, Tin Can Cocktails, and Beau’s Grillery.