Detroit Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield says she will retain Todd Bettison as the city’s police chief.  

In a statement released Tuesday, Sheffield praised Bettison’s results – citing Detroit’s record drops in violent crime – including the lowest homicide rate since the mid-1960s.  

Bettison had a 27-year long career in the police department, before becoming Detroit’s Deputy Mayor in 2022.  Mayor Duggan made him Police Chief earlier this year after former Chief James White left to become the head of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network. 

Additional headlines from Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Sewer tunnelling project  

The Great Lakes Water Authority is starting a new project with the goal of alleviating sewage overflows in parts of Southwest Detroit.  The authority will hold a ceremony Thursday to launch the assembly and operation of a tunnel-boring machine.  

The $87 million infrastructure project will eventually build a three-quarter mile long tunnel that will redirect excess rainwater and snow melt away from the normal system into the Oakwood Retention Treatment Basin.  The GLWA says that should reduce sewage levels and overflows into the Rouge River.   

The tunnelling is scheduled to begin in the spring. 

North Corktown housing 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has announced a new housing development in Detroit’s North Corktown neighborhood.  

The project will create 23 new apartments and retail space.  About 30% of the apartments will be classified as affordable housing.

The state is providing a $1.5 million grant from its Revitalization and Placemaking program.  The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation is also providing a $530,000 low-interest loan for the project. 

Trump addresses the nation 

President Donald Trump says he will deliver an address to the nation tonight.  He announced the action Tuesday on his Truth Social platform.  The president did not immediately say what the subject of his speech would be.  

The live address from the White House takes place at 9 p.m. and will be available on select broadcast and online platforms. 

Windsor street renaming 

Just across the river, the Chaldean Association of Windsor is holding a special street renaming ceremony.  

A section of Marentette Avenue will get the secondary name “Chaldean Way.”  Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and other officials will be on hand for the ceremony.  The association says there are thousands of Chaldeans living in and around Windsor. 

 The event takes place at 3 p.m. on Friday. 

Christmas Eve one week away 

And Christmas Eve is just a week away.  That means many merchants around Detroit will be busier than normal as residents do their holiday shopping.  

Many large retailers will have extended hours to accommodate additional shoppers.  Independent stores may have expanded hours too, but check before you go.  

And if you haven’t been downtown in a while, you can look for several new shops, especially along Woodward Avenue near the new Hudson’s building.  

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Almost a decade ago, President Donald Trump began campaigning on a very different American policy than the one we previously had. He wanted America to be tougher on China, to build a wall across the Mexico-American border, and to put “America first.”

Today, a lot of that strategy has remained intact, some of it even influencing the Biden administration’s policies.

How do Americans feel about our country’s foreign policy stances? And, how do they want to see America lead?

Rebecca Lissner is a Senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Brady-Johnson distinguished practitioner in grand strategy and lecturer with the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University.

This month, she began speaking with people around the country about what they make of American foreign policy. She is in town to understand how people in metro Detroit feel about the topic, and joined The Metro to share her findings.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.

The post on Trump’s social media site came Thursday night after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations could further inflame trade tensions that already have been building between the two neighboring countries for months.

Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”

“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The prime minister was set to leave Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same Friday evening.

(Source: Associated Press)

Editor’s note: Some photos in this story contain language that may be considered offensive to some readers.

Millions turned out at No Kings protests nationwide as a pushback against President Donald Trump’s policies on everything from tariffs to immigration raids.

Republicans criticized the protests — calling them the “hate America” rallies.

In Detroit, over ten thousand people rallied. The event started in Roosevelt Park in front of Michigan Central Depot.

Detroiter Imani didn’t want to give her last name out of fear for her safety. She wore a unicorn costume in solidarity with protesters in Portland.

“Portland is fighting hate with fun and being silly, and I like that,” she said. 

Imani adds that she’s bothered by how immigrants and U.S. citizens have been treated by federal law enforcement in other cities.

“That is a concern of mine, because Chicago is like our cousin. So if it’s happening over there, it could definitely happen over here, and that’s why I truly support what they’re doing, too, and support the way that they’re fighting back for their community.”

Following the rally, protesters marched to the Customs and Border Protection field office in Downtown Detroit.

Kassandra Rodriguez is with the Detroit Community Action Committee. She says the Trump Administration immigration crackdown means Detroit should be a sanctuary city. Rodriguez says that’s something she’s addressed with City Council President Mary Sheffield.

“When we’ve gone to city council and presented our ordinance, she did say that she would fight for immigrants, and I’m hoping that she holds to that promise.”

Rodriguez says many Latinx people stayed home in fear of ICE.

“A lot of them are very scared, you know, they view these big movements, big protests, as a place where they might get targeted. So it’s so important, even more important, that so many of us come out here and are able to elevate their voices and and share their stories.”

Detroiter Michelle Coates was near the rally, but not there to protest. She said she understands why people are upset.

“People’s tired of unrest, people’s tired of inflation, people’s tired of working day in day out, just to make ends meet. You know the cost of living is going up and up.”

Coates also echoes concerns about authoritarianism in the U.S.

“We, as people of the country of United States of America, is not just going to stand here and let him do and dictate the way he want to and just make us just bow down and just accept whatever he want to give us.”

Detroit Police arrested one pro-Trump counter protester. It was unclear if they made other arrests at the peaceful event.

More Michigan protests

Thousands more rallied across metro Detroit, with protests in Ferndale, Wyandotte and Dearborn. WDET Production Assistant José Llanas attended a No Kings rally in Ann Arbor in Veteran’s Park.

Listen what the protestors had to say below.

I think we’re moving in a direction that I just don’t really support. It would be really nice if we all got back to the normal course of business within government as well as everybody resorted back to just being decent people. Normal is what I would like to see.

 Nobody’s paying us to be here. We’re paying to be here. And, we need to end the fascism that’s happening right now. We need to save the immigrants in this country, and we need to save our citizens because we are next on the list… I just never thought that we would get here as a people.

I’ve got a lot of empathy for the people in the cities where the National Guard is actually being deployed, and so I think that the real emphasis needs to be placed on those places. And it’s fun to be here and it’s nice to have this community event, but also we need to remember why we’re here. And it’s not a really joyous thing.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is suing the federal government on behalf of eight people currently held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The civil rights group argues that these undocumented immigrants — many of whom have lived here for over a decade or were brought here as children — are no threat to the public.

33-year-old Jose Daniel Contreras-Cervantes is a Mexican national and has been in custody since a Macomb County traffic stop back in August. He has leukemia that requires daily medication.

Lupita Contreras is an American citizen and Jose’s wife. Their three children are also citizens. She says he’s not getting the care he needs.

“For 22 days, Jose did not receive his medication, which he is to take daily for his leukemia,” Contreras said. “Lapses in his medication and medical treatment can cause severe symptoms, including damage to his vision, infections and the loss of his life.”

Contreras-Cervantes is currently held at the newly-reopened North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin.

The ACLU wants a judge to release the eight detainees while their immigration cases go through the court.

The Trump Administration ended a bond program for people awaiting their hearing. The Department of Justice and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are opting to jail undocumented immigrants, oftentimes seeking to deport them without due process.

Many times, immigrants showing up for scheduled court hearings have been taken into custody.

ACLU of Michigan Senior Staff Attorney Miriam Aukerman says judges should have the final say over how these people are detained.

“In this country, due process is fundamental,”Aukerman said. “We don’t just lock people up and throw away the key. Rather, judges decide who should be behind bars. That is true for citizens and non-citizens.”

Another man, Fredy De Los Angeles-Flores, has lived in the U.S. for 15 years, but not legally. However, he is the sole caregiver of his 13-year-old U.S. citizen son.

The ACLU of Michigan has already successfully petitioned to get one man, Juan Manuel Lopez-Campos, released on bond after being detained at the Monroe County Jail.

For the Macomb County Sheriff’s office, Commander Jason Abro told WDET that it is common practice for deputies to inform Customs and Border Patrol when an undocumented immigrant is taken into custody. In Contreras-Cervantes’ case, he was pulled over for speeding, but arrested for not having a valid driver’s license.

Commander Abro says the Macomb County Sheriff’s office is not actively aiding ICE investigations and are not a part of the federal Section 287(g) immigration enforcement program.

Aukerman says the change in policy is meant to punish people who are seeking a better life in the U.S.

“This directive is specifically designed to force people to give up their claims for immigration relief and leave their families behind,” Aukerman said.

“The cruelty of this new directive is not an accident. Cruelty is the point.”

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer says she shared her concerns with President Trump about his new H1B visa policy which makes the price of applying for a visa $100,000.

H1B visas allow companies to bring in international workers for specialized jobs requiring higher education. Whitmer says she told President Trump that raising the application cost of those visas by around 10,000% could hurt Michigan’s economy.

Whitmer adds the state’s medical and automotive industries could be directly impacted by visa policy changes, saying large numbers of Canadian workers in fields like nursing and engineering rely on the visas.

Additional headlines from Tuesday September 30, 2025

Southwest Detroit hosts forum for candidates in upcoming election

A group of local community organizations is hosting the State of Southwest: A Municipal Candidate Forum on October 11.

Candidates for mayor, City Council District 6 and at-large seats have been invited to hear personal testimonies and concerns from residents of Southwest Detroit before sharing their plans to address the problems.

Organizers include 482Forward, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Michigan United, Raices Detroit, Urban Neighborhood Initiatives and We the People MI.

The forum is Saturday October 11 from noon to 3 p.m. in the  El Nacimiento warehouse at 7000 W Vernor Hwy. 

Resource guide for Native Americans returns

The state is relaunching a resource guide for Michigan tribal communities.

The Office of Civil Rights began publishing the Michigan Indian Quarterly more than 30 years ago. Now the Native American Resource Guide will be produced by the Department of Lifelong Education Advancement and Potential in partnership with Michigan State University’s Native American Institute.

The guide will include a list of tribal, state and federal contacts, education, legal and health resources, scholarship opportunities, genealogical research tools and artwork from Native artists from Michigan.

Print copies can be requested at nai@msu.edu.

Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival 

The Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival is this weekend.

The city’s creative community invites visitors to their home studios and front porches as well as to coffee shops, galleries and parks throughout the city. Organizers say the festival is meant to show that art is for everyone and that all are welcome.

The Hamtramck Night Bazaar will offer food and goods from a variety of vendors, and stores and restaurants will also be open. For more information visit hnaf.org.  

DNR on the lookout for Belle Isle alligator

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has confirmed sightings of a small alligator roaming on Belle Isle.

The Detroit Free Press reports someone took a picture of the gator and shared it on social media. The DNR reviewed the photograph and used geolocation data to determine its authenticity.

The agency says it doesn’t know how the reptile got there, but it reminds people that releasing pets or wild animals on Belle Isle or other state parks is illegal and harmful to native creatures.

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2020, 15 Republicans tried to cast Michigan’s electoral votes for President Trump, even through President Biden won the state by 154,000. In this episode of MichMash, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow break down how the legal case against these electors unraveled.

Then, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Counties Steve Currie joins the show to talk about how the state budget affects local governments.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.