Hundreds of thousands of Michiganders lost power over the weekend of July Fourth, prompting a conversation about the fragility of the electrical grid in the face of climate change.

Regulators have approved rate hikes to facilitate infrastructure updates, but modernization of the scale needed will take years. Despite the fact that consumers won’t reap the benefits immediately, residents are having to pay for the upgrades now.

Democratic lawmakers have proposed solutions: Fair compensation for power outages, guaranteeing improvement of utility services, ensuring customers aren’t contributing to CEO bonuses and more. But these bills are gaining little to no traction, often deprived of a hearing.

Why can’t politics fix this issue? What does it say about those we’ve elected in the state legislature?

Colin Jackson is a reporter for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He says Republicans are concerned with rolling back clean energy standards, while Democrats prioritize regulation.

“I think when you talk about lowering energy costs and lowering power costs and utility costs, that is something that you do see both sides of the aisle talking about quite a bit,” says Jackson. “It’s just the approach to it in general varies drastically.”

Jackson joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss why gridlock in Lansing has meant a less stable electrical grid.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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

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There is a quiet that settles into a house when the power has been out for three days. The hum you never noticed is gone. The refrigerator has given up. If someone in the house depends on a machine to sleep, or a medication that has to stay cold, the quiet starts to feel like something else.

That was the mood in many homes in southeast Michigan over the Fourth of July weekend. Storms came through on Friday night with winds over 60 miles an hour.

By that night, more than 450,000 utility customers statewide were in the dark — most of them DTE customers. For some, the power did not come back for five days.

As the lights returned, so too did an argument about what people are owed when the grid fails, and about who, exactly, is supposed to answer for it.

Representative Alabas Farhat is among the people pushing for answers to those questions. He represents Dearborn and part of Detroit — some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods — and he is calling for state hearings into how the utilities responded, along with bigger compensation for residents than the state’s $42-a-day outage credit.

DTE has defended its response. In a statement to WDET, the company said the storms caused the most damage it has seen in years — knocking out power to nearly 400,000 of its customers — and that its “sole focus is on restoring power for our customers as quickly and safely as possible.”

At a press conference this week, CEO Joi Harris said the company got only about 90 minutes’ warning before the storm hit, and officials said most of the damage came from large trees outside the utility’s easements, with replacement crews coming from as far as Texas and Canada.

Harris also acknowledged the limits of the credit: “We know that $42 doesn’t cut it.”

Farhat joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss what he heard from constituents who spent days in the dark, why he believes the current credit falls short, and what it would take to hold Michigan’s utilities to a higher standard.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.

If you live in metro Detroit, the last week probably tested your patience — and maybe your fridge.

First, the heat. As temperatures rose past 100, the grid strained, and a substation in Warren failed. Thousands lost power, some for many hours.

Then, just as that passed, the storms came. Friday night, winds tore through the region and dropped 80-foot trees onto power lines — and at the peak, hundreds of thousands of homes went dark. Some homes stayed dark for days.

And here’s the thing: that’s the grid we already have, straining under an ordinary Michigan summer.

Now Michigan is preparing to add something extraordinary — data centers built to power artificial intelligence, each one hungry for as much electricity as a small city. And the decisions about who pays for that, and how, are being made right now, mostly out of public view.

Nicholas Schroeck, dean of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, thinks a lot about who answers to the public when big energy decisions get made. He joined Robyn Vincent to talk about what the data center boom means for Michigan’s grid, your electric bill, and whether the public has any real say.

 

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.

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Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan, says there are now over 700 cases of cyclosporiasis in the state. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services put out additional recommendations to prevent the spread of cyclospora over the weekend. 

Cyclosporiasis is a gastrointestinal disease caused by parasites, which causes severe diarrhea.  

Dr. Bagdasarian says much of the spread has been caused by handling and consuming produce. 

“We know that it takes about one to two weeks after consuming something that’s contaminated with cyclospora to develop symptoms, so there’s a lag between being exposed and developing symptoms, said Bardgasarian. “And then, of course, there’s a lag when people are looking for healthcare, when they are finding a healthcare provider, getting tested, and actually determining that this is cyclospora.”

Wayne County is among several counties with large numbers of people diagnosed. Recommendations include washing all fresh produce under clean running water, and cooking foods to kill cyclospora.  

If people suspect being infected, they should see a health care provider, mentioning they may have cyclospora if symptoms of diarrhea don’t clear up in a few days. Treatment includes a dose of antibiotics.

Additional headlines for Monday, July 6, 2026

Dearborn FEMA funding

The City of Dearborn has received federal funding to improve its sewer system. FEMA awarded $8.1 million for the upgrades… as part of the second phase of a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Work will be done in the city’s neighborhoods between Chase Road and Greenfield Avenue.  

About 6,200 feet of storm sewers will be added to help with flood mitigation efforts. The city flooded in 2014, 2018 and in 2021when a “once-in-a-lifetime flood” backed up the sanitary sewer system, causing two-thirds of basements to flood in the city.  

While FEMA will pay for 90% of the upgrades, Dearborn will pay for the remaining 10% of the work.  

Power update

DTE Energy crews worked all weekend to restore power to customers who lost electricity due to Friday’s severe thunderstorms. At one point, more than 200,000 homes and businesses in Southeast Michigan lost power after strong winds knocked down tree limbs and power lines. That number is down to about 73,000. DTE says it expects to restore power to most of these customers by the end of the day.  

-Reporting by Pat Batcheller   

 Older Americans turn to friends for care

 A new University of Michigan study finds friends are replacing family members in caring for elderly Americans. 

Researcher Crystal Ng says changing family relationships including divorce are leaving gaps in care that children once provided. She says older Americans are relying on friends for more than a drive to the doctor’s office.  

“A lot of times friends will also participate in clinical settings. Such as not only picking them… to transportation… to the medical appointment… but also sit next to them.”

Ng says relying on friends also provides people over the age of 65 years with a social framework and helps them maintain their independence. 

The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Network Open portal.  

-Reporting by Steve Carmody 

If something is happening in your neighborhood that you think we should know about, drop us a line at DetroitEveningReport@wdet.org. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. 

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