Detroit Police are handing out free gun locks at precincts. The goal is to stop accidental shootings and protect kids. Anyone can grab one by calling or visiting their local station.
Guns left unsecured pose real dangers, particularly when children live in the house. These locks keep weapons from firing when nobody’s using them, adding protection alongside smart storage habits that every gun owner should practice.
Police say owners must store guns unloaded. Keep bullets locked away separately. Make sure no child or unauthorized person can access them. A basic lock can slash the chances of tragic accidents.
Every neighborhood in the city can participate. Wayne County residents and those in surrounding Metro areas qualify. No proof of ownership required, though stock might differ between stations.
Police partner with safety groups to spread awareness and distribute locks. These pushes intensify when kids spend more time at home such as during school breaks or summer vacation.
If you want a lock you can call your precinct and ask about pickup. Officers can answer questions and point you toward other safety materials if needed.
Detroit has demolished roughly 27,000 abandoned houses and sold another 19,000 formerly vacant homes since Mayor Mike Duggan took office in 2014 and embarked on what became one of the largest residential blight-removal efforts in the country, city officials said this week.
Nearly 12 years ago, Detroit had an estimated 47,000 abandoned, city-owned houses under the Detroit Land Bank Authority. As of this month, that inventory has been reduced to 942 homes, according to a final report released by Duggan ahead of the closeout of Proposal N, a voter-approved bond program that funded the second phase of demolitions.
Of the remaining homes, 240 are slated for demolition within the next six months, while 702 are expected to be sold to buyers willing to renovate them in 2026, city officials said.
“It took 12 years, but Detroit has successfully demolished 27,000 houses and sold another 19,000 formerly abandoned homes to families who wanted to fix them up,” Duggan said.
The effort unfolded in two major phases. From 2014 to 2020, Detroit used $265 million in federal Hardest Hit Fund dollars to demolish 18,701 houses and sell 9,043 others for rehabilitation. That work accelerated under Proposal N, a $250 million bond approved by voters in 2020. It funded 8,277 demolitions and led to 10,037 home sales between 2021 and 2025, exceeding the city’s original targets of 8,000 demolitions and 8,000 renovations.
“Homeowners who stayed in Detroit and never left were the ones who gained the most wealth,” Duggan said. “That has been one of the most satisfying accomplishments of this administration.”
While the city is nearing the elimination of the Land Bank’s vacant housing stock, the final closeout of Proposal N remains tied to an ongoing environmental cleanup effort linked to contaminated soil used at some demolition sites.
For years, the city has required contractors to backfill demolition sites with clean, uncontaminated soil. When testing revealed unacceptable contaminant levels, officials say the city removed the soil, replaced it, and sought reimbursement from contractors.
That process intensified this year after investigators determined that contaminated soil may have been used at dozens of residential demolition sites.
Earlier this summer, Detroit’s Office of Inspector General reported that demolition contractor Gayanga Co. LLC may have used unapproved backfill sources. Testing ordered by the city found that 33 of 41 Gayanga-handled sites failed to meet state residential standards. Gayanga and its owner, Brian McKinney, were suspended from city work while the investigation continues. City records show the company has completed more than 2,400 demolitions in Detroit, earning nearly $64 million in contracts.
Duggan said the investigation later expanded beyond a single contractor. Soil supplied by Iron Horse of Michigan Inc., which operates a sand and gravel pit in Milford Township, was used to backfill 424 demolition sites in Detroit. City testing found elevated contaminant levels at multiple locations supplied by Iron Horse, prompting the city to suspend the company as an approved backfill source in November and refer the matter to the state.
The city said it is working with environmental consulting firm Mannik & Smith Group to test every site where contaminated soil is suspected. To date, soil has been removed from 58 properties, including sites involving Iron Horse and Gayanga. Police are also investigating whether contractors intentionally used unapproved soil sources and whether fraud charges may be warranted.
The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is overseeing the investigation into Iron Horse’s operations.
Duggan said the city has set aside $15 million in Proposal N closeout funds to address soil remediation, making it unlikely the cleanup will affect Detroit’s finances.
“As we have for the last 12 years, we will test every single site with suspected contaminated backfill, we will immediately remove any soil found unacceptable, and we will pursue reimbursement from the responsible contractor,” Duggan said.
Max Sussman of Bev’s Bagels has big plans for 2026.
The chef plans to expand the footprint of his shop in Detroit’s Core City and add an additional location in downtown Ann Arbor.
The new location is set for a 1,500-square-foot space at 115 E. Liberty St., with the aim of opening by fall 2026.
In a statement, Sussman said the Ann Arbor location was special because Bev’s Bagels started as a pop-up there in 2020.
“This is literally where I started cooking more than 20 years ago,” Sussman said in a statement. “Ann Arbor is where everything began for me, so there’s a real sense of coming full circle. I’m incredibly excited to have a proper oven right in downtown Ann Arbor, surrounded by great neighbors and so much to plug into.”
Sussman says the Ann Arbor space will be built with green energy in mind.
“We’re also excited to design sustainability into this new build,” he said. “By incorporating more electric cooking we can also align with Ann Arbor’s push toward energy efficiency.”
Meanwhile, Bev’s Bagels also plans to nearly double its size in Core City by expanding into an adjacent space. The Bagel shop opened earlier this year at 4884 Grand River Ave., in the former Detroit Institute of Bagels next door to bakery Mother Loaf. On Dec. 1, Mother Loaf wrote in an Instagram post that its landlord decided not to renew its lease.
Sussman says the expansion will add more seating and allow the shop to offer more items, including breads, pastries, and “fun experiments like bagel dogs,” while also allowing increasing opportunities for wholesale and catering. The shop says it also plans to continue its “Bagels with Buds” collaborations with other Detroit-area chefs.
“Expanding in Detroit will let us serve our customers faster and better, and will help build Bev’s into a true third space for the neighborhood, where people can come and just hang out and enjoy some good food in a more comfortable space,” Sussman said. “We want to give families space to linger a little while and for people to have lunch meetings here, rather than just treating bagels as a grab-and-go item. ”
Sussman also emphasized that Bev’s Bagels has a Community Sandwich Project, where diners can purchase a bagel sandwich in advance for someone in need.
“There’s been an incredible amount of generosity with people buying bagels for others,” Sussman said. “What we want now is to make sure people know these are available to be redeemed, no questions asked.”
Bev’s Bagels says it’s aiming to complete the Core City expansion by spring 2026.
Michigan drivers pocketed $357 per vehicle after the state’s 2019 auto insurance overhaul. according to a Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services report. Milliman, Inc. did the analysis. The bipartisan changes slashed costs and shrunk the uninsured motorist rate gap when compared with other states.
Before the changes, Michigan’s uninsured motorist rate sat 5.4% above the national figure. After, it dropped to 3.9% higher. Wayne County drivers saved $539 per vehicle on average.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer put pen to paper in May 2019, making the overhaul law. The goal was threefold: bring down what drivers pay, keep high coverage available, and let people choose their Personal Injury Protection medical coverage amount.
“In 2019, Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature and I came together to deliver historic, bipartisan auto insurance reform that lowered costs for Michiganders and made insurance coverage more accessible,” said Whitmer per SooLeader. “Six years later, we’re still seeing the positive impact of that reform and how it’s working for Michiganders across the state.”
Most of the savings came through PIP cuts, which fell $369 per vehicle on average. The total MCCA assessment dropped $120 per insured vehicle since 2019. Before that, it had climbed year after year.
Researchers examined how the overhaul affected accident victims and healthcare providers getting care. A medical fee schedule came with the changes. Lower payment rates for attendant care services might have caused some trouble at first, with people reporting problems getting these services. But the report shows access issues appear to have eased. Market shifts, court rulings, and the DIFS complaint process all helped fix access issues.
Got questions about your policy? Call DIFS at 833-ASK-DIFS. They’re available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The complete report is available at Michigan.gov/DIFS.
NEW YORK (AP) — You don’t need to major in astrophysics at Harvard to become an actor — but it doesn’t necessarily hurt, either.
“I thought that’s what you go there to do. It’s like why are you paying all this money to go to this fancy school if you’re not going to study a hard science to try to save the world? … But I was quickly humbled,” chuckled Chase Sui Wonders, who began failing classes within her first few weeks. Her college application essay had been about making movies, so she decided she “might as well just pivot back to what I know best.”
That calculated redirection paid off for the magna cum laude graduate who’s now a standout cast member of the Emmy-winning comedy “The Studio,” a cynical and satirical take on the film industry.
Chase Sui Wonders always thought she was “kind of funny,” but it was confirmed when she booked “The Studio” after just one audition. It’s been an eventful year for the AP Breakthrough Entertainer who plays the ambitious assistant-turned-creative executive Quinn Hackett on the Emmy-winning comedy. (Dec. 10)
“The attention’s definitely weird, but can feel good,” said the 29-year-old, flashing her warm smile throughout the interview. “The most energizing thing about the whole thing is when you get recognition, the phone starts ringing more, and these other avenues are opening up that I always kind of dreamed about.”
“The Studio” amassed an astounding 23 Emmy nominations in its debut season, taking home a record-breaking 13 wins. But Wonders may not have seemed like an obvious choice for comedy with her past roles, including the 2022 film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and her breakout role, the teen-themed series “Genera+ion,” which was canceled by HBO Max after one season. But all it took was one virtual video audition to land the role of Quinn Hackett, the hyper-ambitious, cutthroat assistant-turned-creative executive under studio head Matt Remick, played by the show’s co-creator and co-executive producer Seth Rogen.
“I had always … felt like, ‘I think I’m kind of funny,’” she laughed, acknowledging feeling she had to prove herself working alongside comedic heavyweights like Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz. “That pressure felt really daunting and scary. But I think, hopefully, I rose to the occasion.”
This image released by Apple TV shows Chase Sui Wonders in a scene from “The Studio.” (Apple TV via AP)
This image released by Apple TV shows Chase Sui Wonders in a scene from “The Studio.” (Apple TV via AP)
Despite mere degrees of separation from Hollywood as the niece of fashion designer Anna Sui, an acting career seemed unattainable growing up in Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. Born to a father of Chinese descent and a white mother, Wonders and her siblings were primarily raised by their mom after their parents divorced.
GET TO KNOW CHASE SUI WONDERS
AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Detroit suburbs
FIRST ROLE: Technically, 2009’s “A Trivial Exclusion,” a feature-length film made with her family. Otherwise, let’s go with the 2019 horror film “Daniel Isn’t Real.”
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “Genera+ion” and her character’s climactic love of quesaritos in “The Studio”
2025 IN REVIEW: The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” reboot and “The Studio”
WHAT’S NEXT: The films “I Want Your Sex” and “October,” as well as a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot series
HER HARVARD MAJOR: Film studies and production. In the end, she did graduate magna cum laude.
Want to know more about Chase and our other Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025? Read our survey.
An extremely shy child and self-described tomboy, she developed a love for sports — she won high school state championships in both ice hockey and golf — and spent much of her childhood making videos with her siblings. Thanks to her mother encouraging her to take performance arts classes, she was able to break out of her shell. But coming from an achievement-driven family, all signs pointed to a career in business.
A corporate track nearly began after struggling to break into the industry, and she even considered taking a job in Beijing to begin her adult life in the business world. But with only a week to decide on the job offer, she decided to give Hollywood one more shot. Three months later, she booked “Genera+ion.”
Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP
Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP
“There have been different moments in my life where I’ve been seriously humbled,” said Wonders, who has aspirations of directing. “It just has taught me just not to take it all too seriously. … I do feel absurdly lucky that I get to be on set with all my friends and telling a bunch of jokes and being a weirdo on screen.”
Next up for Wonders is the Gregg Araki-directed “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde, and she’ll star in A24’s horror thriller “October.” She’ll also appear in the upcoming “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao directing the pilot. And of course, a second season for “The Studio” is in the works.
Gary Gerard Hamilton’s previous Breakthrough Entertainer profiles include Megan Thee Stallion, Sadie Sink, Simu Liu, Tobe Nwigwe and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. His own media breakthrough came in third grade, after recording a PSA about endangered animals for a Houston TV station.
Red carpets and magazine covers couldn’t be a more antithetical life for the girl who assumed she’d climb the executive ranks at one of the major car companies headquartered in Detroit. Instead, she’s climbing the Hollywood ladder — and she wouldn’t tell her younger self to speed up the process.
“It’s so fun how life surprises you,” said Wonders. “I wouldn’t tell her anything. I would tell her it’s all going to make sense in the rearview mirror — but no spoilers.”
The electricity that heats the downtown Detroit building malfunctioned early Wednesday afternoon, prompting the city’s fire marshal to order a mandatory evacuation. The outage also knocked out lights and elevators.
“They put us out,” Daryl Stewart, a 67-year-old artist and percussionist who has lived in the building since 2012, tells Metro Times. “The fire department came and knocked on doors. They said, ‘You gotta get out.’”
Tenants say melting ice and snow on the sidewalk leaked into the basement, where the building’s electrical system is located, causing a shortage that left the 20-story building in the dark. A representative for the owner, the Leland House Limited Partnership, is now scrambling to find a solution, but that may be difficult because the company filed for bankruptcy in November.
City Club, a legendary nightclub inside the building, will also be closed until further notice.
Tenants say they received a voucher to stay at a hotel in Southfield.
The Leland House is a historic 20-story building in downtown Detroit. Credit: Steve Neavling
The outage comes a little more than a week after management notified tenants on Black Friday that they had a few days to move out because DTE Energy planned to cut electricity over unpaid electric bills. But on Dec. 4, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved a last-minute arrangement after the Leland House secured a $1.2 million short-term, high-interest loan, and Judge Maria Oxholm barred DTE from cutting off power without her approval. Some of the money, she said, must be used to pay the DTE deposit and maintain casualty insurance.
In a statement Wednesday, DTE Energy said it empathizes with tenants.
“We feel for the residents of the Leland House and know how challenging these past few weeks have been,” the Detroit-based company said. “Unfortunately, this outage was caused by customer-owned equipment that cannot be accessed due to existing structural hazards inside the building. We’re prepared to restore service as soon as the building owner can make the necessary repairs and ensure a safe environment. We are working closely with the city to ensure impacted residents are safe and have access to temporary housing.”
City officials say the fire department “responded immediately to assist and ensure all residents were safely exited” after citing “safety concerns.”
“The City of Detroit’s Housing & Revitalization Department (HRD) has been on-site since the incident, working alongside DTE to support displaced residents,” Alison DeRees, a city spokesperson, tells Metro Times. “DTE is covering the cost of temporary housing, and HRD’s Housing Stability Division is currently supporting 32 residents with temporary housing, while others have chosen to stay with friends or family. HRD continues to offer financial assistance to any residents of the Leland House seeking other permanent housing options, and our team will remain in close contact with impacted residents in the days and weeks ahead to ensure they have the resources and support needed during this transition.”
Metro Times featured the Leland House on the cover of this week’s paper edition. The Leland opened in 1927 as a glamorous Italian Renaissance hotel with more than 700 rooms, an opulent ballroom, and a grand lobby designed by Rapp & Rapp, the Chicago firm behind Detroit’s Michigan Theatre.
The building has been in gradual decline for the past few decades. Michael Higgins, who ran Leland House Limited Partnership, died in September 2023 and never followed through on a promised $120 million renovation that was announced in 2018. In the years since, the building has become mired in lawsuits, code violations, unpaid bills, and mounting debt.
Metro Times is awaiting a response from Luis Ramirez, who represents the Michael Higgins Trust and the Leland House ownership.
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump this week announced plans to weaken rules for how far automakers’ new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline, set under former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration said the rules, known formally as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards, are why new vehicles are too expensive, and that cutting them will drive down costs and make driving safer for Americans.
The new standards would drop the industry fleetwide average for light-duty vehicles to roughly 34.5 mpg (55.5 kpg) in the 2031 model year, down from the goal of about 50.4 mpg (81.1 kpg) that year under the Biden-era rule.
Here are the facts.
Affordability
TRUMP: EV-friendly policies “forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices and made the car much worse.”
THE FACTS: It’s true that gas mileage standards have played a role in rising vehicle prices in recent years, but experts say plenty of other factors have contributed, and some much more.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on fuel economy standards in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on fuel economy standards in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The average transaction price of a new vehicle hit $49,105 in October, according to car shopping guide Edmunds.
A Consumer Reports analysis of vehicles for model years 2003 to 2021 — a period in which average fuel economy improved 30% — found no significant increase in inflation-adjusted vehicle prices caused by the requirements. At the same time, it found an average of $7,000 in lifetime fuel savings per vehicle for 2021 model year vehicles compared with 2003. That analysis, done primarily before the coronavirus pandemic, attributed much of the average sticker price increase to the shift toward bigger and more expensive vehicles.
Cutting the fuel economy standards is unlikely to provide any fast relief on sticker prices, said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights. And while looser standards may eventually mean lower car prices, their lower efficiency means that those savings could be eaten up by higher fuel costs, she said.
Ending the gas car?
TRUMP: Biden’s policies were “a quest to end the gasoline-powered car.”
THE FACTS: The Biden administration did enact several policies to increase electric vehicle adoption, including setting a target for half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.
While those moves sought to help build the EV market, there was no requirement that automakers sell EVs or consumers buy them. And gasoline cars still make up the vast majority of the U.S. market.
EV charging
TRUMP: “We had to have an electric car within a very short period of time, even though there was no way of charging them.”
THE FACTS: While many potential EV buyers still worry about charging them, the availability of public charging has significantly improved in recent years.
Biden-era funding and private investment have increased charging across the nation. There are now more than 232,000 individual Level 2 and fast charging ports in the U.S. As of this year, enough fast charging ports have been installed to average one for every mile (1.6 kilometers) of National Highway System roads in the U.S., according to an AP analysis of data from the Department of Energy.
However, those fast charging stations aren’t evenly dispersed. Many are concentrated in the far West and the Northeast, where sales of EVs are highest.
Experts note that most EV charging can be done at home.
Safety
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY SEAN DUFFY: The reduced requirements will make drivers “safer on the roads because of all the great new technology we have that save lives.”
THE FACTS: Newer vehicles — gas and electric — are full of advanced safety features, including automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping, collision warnings and more.
Duffy suggested that consumers will be more likely to buy new vehicles if they are more affordable — meaning fewer old cars on the streets without the safety technology. This assumes vehicle prices will actually go down with eased requirements, which experts say might not be the case. Besides, high tech adds to a vehicle’s cost.
“If Americans purchased more new vehicles equipped with the latest safety technologies, we would expect overall on-road safety to improve,” Edmunds’ Caldwell said. “However, it’s unclear whether easing fuel-economy standards will meaningfully increase new-vehicle sales.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent automotive research nonprofit, also says electric or hybrid vehicles are as safe as or safer than gasoline-powered cars.
Another part of safety is public health. Efficiency requirements put into place to address the 1970s oil crisis were also a way to reduce pollution that is harmful to humans and the environment.
“This rollback would move the auto industry backwards, keeping polluting cars on our roads for years to come and threatening the health of millions of Americans,” said Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign. “This dangerous proposal adds to the long list of ways the Trump administration is dismantling our clean air and public health protections.”
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Associated Press data journalist M.K. Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
The heat has been out for more than a month in a large part of the historic Alden Towers apartment complex on Detroit’s east riverfront, forcing tenants in 98 units to warm their homes with space heaters in a building that has a growing list of safety and maintenance problems.
The city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED) issued an emergency correction order on Nov. 24 after inspecting the four-tower complex and confirming that one tower lost heat on Nov. 4. Tenants say building management, Friedman Real Estate, didn’t turn on the heat until Nov. 1, weeks after temperatures dropped, and it went out three days later. Tenants still have no heat in the A Tower.
On Tuesday, one day after Metro Times contacted the city about the outage, Detroit began issuing $2,000 fines to the building’s owner, Alden Towers Holding Company LLC, and will continue writing tickets every day until heat is restored. The city is also weighing legal action.
“We have been aware of isolated heat complaints in one of the towers at Alden Towers but were unaware of it being a widespread issue until just recently,” BSEED spokesperson Georgette Johnson told Metro Times in a statement Tuesday. “Last week, we wrote an emergency correction order for the landlord to address the issues. As of Monday, the issue still had not been fixed. This is unacceptable. Yesterday, we issued tickets to the owner in the amount of $2,000 and will continue to write tickets daily until the issue is addressed and tenants have reliable heat. We also are working with the Law Department on potential legal action against the owner of the building.”
In May 2023, a three-alarm fire ripped through the B Tower after a candle fell in one of the units, sending thick black smoke through hallways and trapping residents. Tenants say some alarms never sounded. Two people were treated for smoke inhalation.
Now, tenants say they’ve been told to rely on multiple space heaters to stay warm because management cannot provide heat. Temperatures are expected to plummet to single digits this weekend.
“I have three space heaters. My son lives here with me,” one long-time tenant who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation tells Metro Times. “They were super late turning the heat on this season. We were already freezing on Halloween.”
Tenants are worried the space heaters will significantly increase their electric bills and potentially cause a fire.
Another tenant, who has lived in the building for about seven years, says he has trouble working because his apartment is so frigid.
“It’s been so cold,” he says. “I got home from business and it was freezing and I couldn’t even work. I have two space heaters.”
Tenants have posted handwritten signs on the hallways, encouraging residents to reach out to the city.
In a statement to Metro Times on Tuesday, Friedman Real Estate said the outage was caused by a failed boiler and circulation pump and that a temporary solution is in the works.
”A custom replacement circulation pump is already on order and is scheduled for delivery and installation in mid-January,” the statement read. “In the meantime, ownership has authorized the rapid deployment and installation of a temporary boiler to restore heat as quickly as possible. Supplemental heating is also available upon request, and our property management team is working closely with both the City and mechanical specialists to stabilize heating throughout the building as quickly as possible.”
Tenants countered that the ”supplemental heating,” meaning space heaters, has already ran out and is no longer available.
The owner did not return calls for comment.
Since August 2024, the city has cited the owner at least six times for a total of $1,600 in fines for violations ranging from failing to obtain a certificate of compliance and maintain clean, sanitary conditions to ignoring unsafe building conditions, broken fire-safety doors, and required safety equipment that wasn’t working.
One tenant says her family, including her baby, has developed significant health problems caused by mold in their unit. She says the building has not addressed the issue despite repeated complaints.
Overflowing dumpsters outside Alden Towers in Detroit. Credit: Steve Neavling
On Tuesday, Metro Times spotted dumpsters outside Alden Towers that were so overfilled that trash was heaped above the lids and spilling down the sides, with bags, boxes, and loose debris scattered across the snowy ground.
Alden Towers, originally built in 1922 and once considered one of the most distinctive apartment complexes on the Detroit River, now faces a long list of complaints, including broken elevators, mold, flooding, overflowing trash, roach infestations, unsafe hallways, and a management company that tenants say is indifferent and punitive.
Residents say the decline began after the building was purchased in 2019 by Alden Towers Holding Company LLC, a company tied to Belfor Holdings Inc., according to tax and state property records and a previous report from Crain’s Detroitthat lists a Belfor executive as a member of the LLC.
“It went extremely downhill,” one tenant says. “You can tell they don’t care. Previously it was calm and quiet. As soon as they let their guard down, they let in anyone. It changed the culture of the people living there.”
Maintenance issues have been piling up, tenants say.
“One of the biggest things is the elevators,” a tenant says. “They break down on a weekly basis. Sometimes both of them break down at the same time. What happens to people who are handicapped? There are no fire escapes.”
Several tenants say management has responded to complaints by refusing to renew leases, forcing outspoken residents out. One tenant says her lease was not renewed after she repeatedly contacted the city about problems in the building. She has lived there nine years.
“They said they refused to renew it,” she says. “I had to file a counterclaim against them. I’ve never paid rent late. I’ve never had complaints or violations of my lease.”
The threats of eviction stretch back at least a year or two. In a Metro Times story chronicling the problems at Alden Towers in April 2024, a resident said she was threatened with eviction after raising concerns about safety and sanitation. Other residents described poor conditions, from lack of heat and hot water to broken elevators and roaches.
It has only gotten worse since, tenants say, accusing the city of not taking quicker and more drastic action.
“It’s like being stuck,” the long-time tenant says. “The city is kind of scared to hold them accountable because they don’t want to scare away investors.”
With nearly 400 units across four eight-story towers, Alden Towers is home to seniors, working families, disabled residents, and lower-income tenants. According to census data cited by a resident, 22% of tenants live below the poverty line.
“We have vulnerable, elderly people here,” one resident says. “A lot of our residents are either really young or really old. A lot of them are SSI recipients.”
Without functioning heat, many tenants say they are worried about winter conditions and the risk of using space heaters in a century-old building that already experienced a major fire.
“Now you have a bunch of tenants with space heaters, which are potential hazards,” a tenant says.
Originally built as the Berman Apartments, Alden Towers features crenellated limestone rooflines, ornate brickwork, courtyards, and sweeping river views. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Its current website describes it as a boutique, modern riverfront community.
Tenants say the description is nothing like what they’ve experienced.
“It used to be a nice place to live and a good community,” a tenant says. “Now most people are trying to move.”
The long-time tenant who keeps three space heaters says she is leaving this month after nine years. She considers herself lucky.
“If I didn’t know where I was moving to, this would be a lot worse,” she says. “I love and care about my neighbors, and I really feel bad for them.”
Metro Times could not reach the owner or management company for comment.
Alden Towers is just the latest historic building in Detroit to face repercussions for neglect and deplorable conditions. The historic Leland House in downtown Detroit is on the verge of getting shut down because of delinquent DTE Energy bills and decades of neglect.
Desmond Bane poured in 37 points and grabbed eight rebounds as the visiting Orlando Magic edged the Detroit Pistons 112-109 on Friday to advance to the knockout round of the NBA Cup.
Orlando finished 4-0 in the East Group B of the event and won for the fifth time in their last six games. The Pistons lost for the second time in a row following their 13-game winning streak.
Franz Wagner had 21 points and seven rebounds while Anthony Black tossed in 16 points off the bench. Jalen Suggs added 14 points with four steals.
Cade Cunningham carried the Pistons with 39 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists but also committed eight of Detroit’s 24 turnovers. Tobias Harris had 18 points while Jalen Duren supplied 16 points with 12 rebounds.
Bane carried the Magic back from an early 13-point deficit, scoring 21 first-half points as Orlando took a 59-58 lead into intermission. Black had 12 points at the break.
The game remained tight throughout the third quarter. The Magic finished the quarter on a 15-7 run to carry an 89-84 lead into the fourth.
Bane reached the 30-point mark when Cunningham was called for a technical in the final minute of the quarter. Cunningham reached the 30-point mark on two free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Black opened the fourth with a midrange jumper and Bane made a layup to stretch Orlando’s lead to nine points. Bane soon made two free throws to push the lead to 10.
Down 100-90, the Pistons reeled off 10 straight points, capped by a Cunningham 3-pointer with 4:10 to play. A Cunningham basket with 2:48 left gave Detroit a 106-105 lead but Bane’s three-point play with 2:11 left put Orlando back on top.
Clinging to a 110-109 lead, Orlando grabbed three offensive rebounds that forced Javonte Green to foul Suggs with 6.3 seconds left. Suggs made both free throws.
Cunningham was fouled with 4.7 seconds left but missed the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second. The Pistons got the rebound but Duncan Robinson’s last-ditch 3-point try was blocked by Black.
The Atlanta Hawks will be off tonight and Thursday night before hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night at State Farm Arena, where the Hawks are 3-4 this season. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice
First-year Atlanta Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker sat down in front of the reporter’s cameras, voice recorders, and notebooks after practice on Wednesday afternoon. From the look of his body language, the veteran Canadian guard was looking forward to having the next couple of nights off.
Asked if he was looking forward to having Wednesday and Thursday night off before the Hawks host the Cleveland Cavaliers at State Farm Arena on Friday night, Alexander-Walker confirmed what his body was already giving off.
“For sure,” he said. “You get time to relax, and it’s always good to mix in rest. You feel a lot lighter.”
Alexander-Walker hasn’t gotten much rest this season, as he has played in 17 of the Hawks’ 19 games. Primarily a starter, Alexander-Walker is averaging 31.6 minutes per game to go along with nearly 19 points, three rebounds, and just over three assists per game.
He added that it would be good to “get away from the X’s and O’s for a bit.”
On Tuesday, the Hawks played like they were ready for Thanksgiving break, falling behind by 20 points to the Washington Wizards en route to a 19-point loss to one of the worst teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Atlanta, 11-8 overall, is currently in sixth place in the Eastern Conference and will have a tough string of games coming up. Along with hosting Cleveland, the Hawks will play back-to-back road games at Philadelphia and Detroit on Sunday and Monday, respectively.
The Hawks will return to Atlanta to host the Denver Nuggets on Friday, December 5, before traveling to the Nation’s Capital to face the Wizards again on Saturday, December 6.
Second-year Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher (above) is averaging 11.7 points per game. He scored 17 points in the Hawks’ loss at Washington on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice
On Wednesday, Hawks second-year forward Zaccharie Risacher could be seen working on his three-point shot with coaches. Risacher was coming off screens and catch-and-shoots, trying to get his stroke back. A night earlier in Washington, he scored 17 points during what would be a blowout loss and one of the many mundane regular-season games in the NBA. The game wasn’t meaningless to Risacher, who broke a single-digit scoring streak he had been going through. Risacher scored just five points against the Charlotte Hornets the last time the Hawks were at home last Sunday, and eight points at New Orleans last Saturday. The Hawks won both games, but are a better team when Risacher, who averages 11.7 points, 2.8 rebounds per game, and shoots 44.6% from the field, adds his two cents.
Risacher scored just two points in the Hawks’ loss in San Antonio a week ago.
The Atlanta Hawks are 3-4 at home this season, but Alexander-Walker understands that the NBA season is indeed a marathon.
“On to the next,” he said. “You’ve got to learn from your wins and your losses.”
The Detroit City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Living Wage for Musicians Act, a federal proposal introduced by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat, to overhaul the way artists are paid for digital streams.
Today, streaming accounts for roughly 84% of all recorded music revenue in the U.S., but artists often earn just fractions of a cent per play, sometimes as little as $0.003 per stream. At that rate, a musician needs more than 800,000 monthly streams to earn the equivalent of a full-time, $15-an-hour job, according to Detroit’s resolution.
Supporters urged the council to join the push for higher streaming royalties, pointing to Detroit’s major influence on music.
Marcus Miller, co-founder of the Creative Union, a group that supports artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs, told council members that the legislation could help Detroit’s creative workforce stay in the city.
“With bills like this, we have the opportunity to keep our talent here for the future and actually make a change, so I’m just inspired,” Miller said. “We honestly can do anything. It’s the most important thing in the world that with every step forward, we make every step together because that’s the only way we’re going to make a difference — through our voice, our shared efforts, through knowing that the only real change comes from the people, for the people, and by the people. And we will see this through.”
Adrian Tonon, co-founder of the Creative Union and Detroit’s former 24-hour economy ambassador, says artists and organizers plan to travel to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the bill.
Tlaib reintroduced the legislation in September with support from working musicians and the United Musicians and Allied Workers union. The bill would create a new royalty stream paid directly to artists, separate from the industry’s existing pro-rata system that often funnels most streaming revenue to the biggest acts and major labels.
Under the proposal, a small surcharge would be added to streaming subscriptions — capped between $4 and $10 — and platforms would contribute a share of their advertising revenue. The money would go into a nonprofit Artist Compensation Royalty Fund, which would distribute payments directly to recording musicians. The fund would also include a monthly cap per track so that artists with massive hits don’t absorb a disproportionate share of the payouts.
Tlaib has said the goal is to ensure that musicians who drive the streaming economy can afford to build sustainable careers.
“It’s only right that the people who create the music we love are paid a living wage, so that they can thrive, not just survive,” she said when announcing the bill’s reintroduction last year.
Artists, including Detroit producer and WDET host Shigeto, have backed the plan, calling it a long-overdue correction to a system that has left many musicians struggling as streaming platforms report record profits.
Advocates say the bill would allow more artists to record, tour, and make themselves available to fans, while helping musicians make a living in cities like Detroit.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan had an opportunity this weekend to say whether he thinks President Donald Trump’s threats of jailing and executing political opponents has gone too far.
He passed.
Appearing on WXYZ’s Spotlight on the News over the weekend, Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent, was asked about Trump accusing Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, of “seditious behavior.” Trump suggested their actions could be “punishable by DEATH” after they released a video reminding military members they can refuse illegal orders.
Instead of answering, Duggan dodged the question, as he often has when asked about Trump’s dangerous behavior and policies.
“I’ve stayed out of these national debates,” Duggan said. “I’m not going to get involved in the national debate.”
Host Chuck Stokes quickly moved on, promising to come back with “some more positive things.”
The exchange has become all too common in the local media. Rather than press Duggan on his position, Stokes let the mayor dodge a question that is important for many voters as they continue to ask: Who is Mike Duggan now and where does he stand on many issues? The former Democrat is trying to appeal to independents and Trump supporters, and he has refused to touch controversial issues.
Asked why Duggan wouldn’t respond to Stokes, campaign spokesperson Andrea Bitley tells Metro Times that the mayor “answered the question clearly.”
“He is running for state office, not federal office, and has made it his practice in this campaign to stick to state issues,” Bitley says.
But Trump’s rhetoric and policies have become state issues. Trump has ordered federal immigration raids that rely on state cooperation, pushed to deploy U.S. troops into American cities, and threatened to withhold funding to some states. His administration’s policies deal with everything from health care access and public safety to immigration enforcement.
In posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Slotkin and five other Democratic lawmakers “traitors” and wrote that their video urging troops to refuse unlawful orders amounted to “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a supporter’s call to “HANG THEM,” prompting a wave of threats against the lawmakers and forcing some to adopt 24/7 security.
Slotkin, appearing on ABC’s This Week, called Trump’s language “a tool of fear” and said the goal was to intimidate critics and distract from other damaging news.
Even some Republicans denounced Trump. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said calling opponents “traitors” and threatening the death penalty was “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible” and warned it could inspire unstable people to commit violence. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally and Republican from South Carolina, called the president’s comments “over the top.”
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul told ABC he didn’t “speak for the president in terms of hanging members of Congress” and urged everyone to “tone down the rhetoric.”
While some Republicans who support Trump were willing to say his threats crossed a line, Duggan has chosen to remain silent.
Instead, he touts his ability to “bring Democrats and Republicans together.”
Here’s the exchange on WXYZ:
Stokes: “We now have a controversy with the president now about sedition and making charges against Democratic politicians, one of our own Senator Slotkin … that it could lead to sedition and could lead to hangings and shooting politicians.”
Duggan: “Yeah, so the reason that we have been successful is, I’m the mayor of Detroit, and I am dealing with issues that relate to Detroiters. I’ve stayed out of these national debates, and I think Detroit has done extremely well by paying attention to what we’re doing in the city, and so I’m not going to get involved in the national debate.”
Stokes didn’t press him. There was no follow-up or questions about whether Duggan thought threatening lawmakers with death was wrong.
That has become a pattern in Duggan’s 2026 governor’s race. He casts himself as a post-partisan problem-solver while dodging questions about Trump’s most extreme actions and rhetoric, even when the target is a fellow Michigan officeholder.
Duggan’s silence stands in stark contrast to the mayor that Detroiters have seen for most of the last decade.
For nearly 40 years in public life, Duggan said he was a proud Democrat. He campaigned for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, he mocked Trump’s many bankruptcies and called him “the most phony party nominee” he’d ever seen. When Trump falsely claimed voter fraud in Detroit in 2020, Duggan called the allegations “utter nonsense” and “a real threat to everything we believe in … that everybody’s vote counts the same.”
He praised Biden and Harris as “real partners” who helped Detroit recover and said “the best thing that happened in Detroit was when Donald Trump left office.”
Now, Duggan insists he hasn’t changed his views “on any issue,” just his party label.
“I haven’t changed any positions, other than that I think the toxic relationship between the two parties is badly damaging the state and we need a different approach to get Republicans and Democrats to work together,” Duggan told conservative Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley this summer.
But his public posture has shifted. He’s far more likely these days to attack Democrats than Trump or Republicans, accusing his former party of caring only about hating the GOP and Trump and claiming “people are fed up with this Democratic Party in Michigan.” On social media and in TV interviews, he repeatedly says both parties are broken, and he is above partisan bickering.
Duggan’s statements come as his campaign relies heavily on a coalition of Republican donors and Trump supporters. As Metro Times previously reported, Duggan is raising millions of dollars from the Republican establishment and Trump megadonors, such as billionaire Roger Penske, former Michigan GOP chair Ron Weiser, charter school mogul J.C. Huizenga, and other heavyweights who have poured money into Trump, the GOP, and conservative causes for years. Many have given Duggan the maximum contribution, and family members and business associates have also donated.
Duggan’s team openly boasts that he’s “pulling unprecedented support from Democrats and Republicans,” citing polling that shows him closing in on Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James in a three-way race. If the election were held today, a recent internal survey from Duggan’s campaign suggested he would garner 26%, while Benson would get 30%, and James 29%.
Duggan’s refusal to condemn Trump for threatening the lives of Slotkin and others is a sharp departure from his past criticism of the president. Either Duggan has changed his position on Trump, or he’s willing to tolerate the threats and bigotry of the administration.
One of them is political theater.
In ordinary times, dodging a question on a popular TV news show might not be a big deal. But the sitting president is telling the country that a Michigan senator and her colleagues are “traitors” whose actions are “punishable by DEATH,” while they report an alarming increase in threats.
Duggan says he wants to leave the “us vs. them” politics behind him, but many voters also want to know whether a would-be governor believes it’s acceptable for a president to suggest that his critics are “traitors” who deserve death.
Duggan chose to duck on live TV when given the chance to condemn Trump’s dangerous rhetoric.
The real question in this campaign may not be whether he’s a Democrat, Republican, or independent. It’s whether Michigan voters will accept a governor who won’t say where he stands when it really matters.
Washtenaw County approved a Materials Management Plan. The target? Hit 30% recycling by 2029. Long-term aims push that figure to 45%. This plan answers 2023 changes to Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, as per Michigan’s official government website, It now requires all counties to craft strategies that prioritize recycling and organics diversion instead of just tracking landfill capacity.
The changes became law March 29, 2023. Counties must establish concrete targets for diverting recyclables and organic matter, which includes food scraps, and lay out strategies with clear timelines for getting there.
Food scraps account for about 25% of what ends up in landfills around the area. “In both some of the state modeling and the modeling that we’ve gotten through our consultant with the materials management planning process, we’re looking at 25–roughly–percent of material is food waste,” said Theo Eggermont.
Eggermont works as Public Works Director at the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office. He pointed out that food scraps produce methane and consume landfill space that might serve better purposes.
The area started a food-scrap drop-off pilot initiative in Ypsilanti, which was built to handle 300 households. This project will keep between 30,000 and 45,000 pounds of food scraps out of landfills in its first six months. Demand was huge. The program filled up fast, which got officials thinking about adding another spot in town.
Plans include bringing the venture to Dexter and Salem Township before 2025 wraps up. Officials selected these three spots to test how the program works in different environments: a packed city, a smaller town, and a rural township.
People who sign up get a countertop bin for gathering food scraps during the week. They bring the material to specific sites. A contractor hauls it to a composting facility, where workers blend it with yard waste to make compost for gardens.
The program got $10,000 in grants from the Biodegradable Products Institute, Closed Loop, and the U.S. Composting Council. Officials think the current diversion rate falls somewhere between 25% and 28%, but exact numbers are hard to pin down.
The area runs programs for hazardous waste, medications, medical sharps, and special cleanup days for big items, too. These efforts keep hundreds of thousands of pounds of material out of landfills each year. A Materials Management Planning Committee will look over a draft organics chapter before 2025 ends.
A traffic signal system built by University of Michigan researchers has slashed needless stops at intersections by up to 30% in Oakland County. Now it’s pushing toward wider use across Southeast Michigan. The tech relies on GPS data from as few as 5% of vehicles to tweak signal timing based on what’s happening on roads right now.
Birmingham, Mich. got the system first in 2022. That test run produced a 20% to 30% drop in wasted stops at traffic lights.
Thirteen signals got upgrades along Eight Mile Road in Farmington Hills and Twelve Mile Road in Royal Oak. Twenty-seven more intersections throughout the county are getting fitted with the tech.
“One corridor saw up to a 30% reduction in delay, and the other corridor was around 20%,” said Zachary Jerome, postdoctoral research fellow at the Transportation Research Institute, according to The Michigan Daily.
The Road Commission for Oakland County teamed up with the research crew to roll out the program. The county oversees more than 1,400 traffic lights and has the most clogged roads in Michigan because population swelled—nearly doubling since 1960.
Old-school traffic signals run on fixed-time systems with pre-set patterns that need manual updates every few years. Sure, vehicle detectors and cameras give steady data, but they cost way more to put in and maintain.
“Oakland County has more than 1,400 signalized intersections that they manage; to install cameras at all 1,400 of those intersections is not feasible,” Jerome said to The Michigan Daily. “We can use this data that’s being collected continually to know — on a much faster timeframe — what’s happening at each intersection.”
The project taps anonymized GPS data from roadside assistance vehicles, navigation services and ride-hailing companies to model traffic patterns across the whole county. Xingmin Wang, an engineering postdoctoral research fellow who worked on predicting traffic delays, said the research group leads GPS-based approaches to signal timing, according to The Michigan Daily.
“We are really the pioneers of this direction,” Xingmin Wang stated. “We are one of the first research teams working on this topic, and also the first Ph.D.s working on this topic.”
Craig Bryson, senior manager of communications and public information at RCOC, said trimming stops could lower crashes from drivers blowing through red lights during rush hour.
The U.S. Department of Transportation funded stage one with a $1.45 million grant for development and rollout at 40 intersections. The research team is applying for a Stage Two Grant to enable broader implementation through the startup Connected Traffic Intelligence, as per The Michigan Daily.
“If we could get access to that data at low or no cost, that would make this a no-brainer to expand it county-wide and literally statewide, nationwide, worldwide,” Bryson said per The Michigan Daily.
The OIG found that Lt. James Hill-Harris, an arson investigator, “fraudulently overstated his hours worked by more than 150 hours,” relying on time sheets that didn’t match key-card activity, cellphone data, or daily activity logs at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. The discrepancies date back as far as 2018.
In some instances, investigators found Hill-Harris was at home or even outside Detroit during hours he claimed to be on duty. Detroit Police Internal Affairs, which conducted its own review after the case was referred for criminal consideration, wrote that the data showed “a consistent pattern of Lieutenant Hill-Harris being at home or outside the City during hours he had reported as worked.”
A six-month stretch of payroll records between 2022 and 2023 showed he claimed 622 hours of overtime, including “43 hours of overtime in a single week.” Investigators estimated he may have received more than $120,800 in income tied to hours he didn’t work over a four-year span.
Based on the allegations, the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES), which handles licensing for police, including arson investigators, stripped Hill-Harris of his certification.
Hill-Harris denied committing time fraud and denied missing work when he was on duty.
“Working remotely, work stacking, and clocking in/out from outside the City of Detroit network were widespread, accepted, and sometimes mandated practices within the unit,” his attorney Robert Burton-Harris is quoted as saying. “Mr. Hill-Harris is being singled out for engaging in practices that are common in the unit.”
The OIG also found that two supervisors — Chief Dennis Richardson and Captain Rance Dixon — failed to perform basic oversight that should have caught the fraud.
Richardson and Dixon “abused their authority by neglecting their supervisory responsibilities which contributed to a lack of accountability” for Hill-Harris’s overtime, the OIG wrote. The agency said both men approved or allowed time submissions without the documentation required under Detroit Fire Department rules.
Interviews conducted by Internal Affairs indicated Hill-Harris’s attendance problems were well-known in the unit. Multiple investigators described “longstanding attendance issues … that had gone unaddressed by unit supervisors,” and some said they believed “a personal friendship” between Richardson and Hill-Harris contributed to the lack of accountability.
Richardson disputed showing favoritism but acknowledged in a recorded OIG hearing that he did “a little digging” and found that several members of the unit, including captains and lieutenants, were clocking in and out of work remotely outside of the City of Detroit network.” He described the noncompliance as “widespread across the unit.”
He said he relied on captains to verify time sheets and did not consider it his responsibility to scrutinize lieutenants’ hours.
Dixon did not respond to the OIG’s draft findings and is considered not to have contested them.
In June 2023, the OIG referred the investigation to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, which requested an investigation from the Detroit Police Department. The Detroit Fire Department also conducted an internal investigation.
Although DPD “confirmed a consistent pattern” of “Harris being at home or outside the city during hours he had reported at work,” the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office declined to pursue criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence to meet the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The OIG emphasized its own administrative standard is lower and only requires that the allegations are “more likely than not” — a threshold that was clearly met, according to the report.
Even without criminal charges, Hill-Harris faced consequences. The Detroit Police Department sought to strip his law-enforcement certification, and on June 4, 2025, MCOLES permanently revoked it for “egregious misconduct involving his lack of accountability.”
In an interview with Metro Times, Detroit Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms says he fired Hill-Harris, but that decision was reversed after the fire union “provided some additional evidence on his behalf.” Hill-Harris was demoted two ranks and is back to fighting fires.
Simms says he took the allegations seriously and took several steps to prevent overtime fraud. The fire department hired a full-time civilian payroll manager, requires prior approval for overtime, conducts biweekly audits to determine if there are any payroll discrepancies, and mandated that employees physically clock in and out. As a result, Simms says, “We’re trending to have the lowest overtime in five years because of the safeguards.”
Inspector General Kamau C. Marable praised the work of Detroit police.
“We appreciate the thorough work of DPD, whose investigation greatly supported the OIG in completing our case,” Marable said. “Their partnership was instrumental in helping us identify time fraud and protect integrity in City operations.”
Five Below will host its first annual Community Christmas Fill the Cruiser Event on Friday, November 21 and Saturday, November 22 in partnership with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office. Kids can snap photos with Santa Claus. They’ll also give away free Mr. Beast toys during the two-day event.
Santa arrives Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Shoppers who buy any item and drop it in the police cruiser parked outside will get the chance to win a $25 gift certificate.
All items collected in the cruiser will go to children in need within Wayne County before Christmas. The goal is to gather donations through customer purchases at the store.
This toy drive represents a collaboration between the discount retailer and law enforcement to support families during the holiday season. Five Below is sponsoring the activities and giveaways throughout the weekend.
The event runs for eight hours total across the two days. Friday hours accommodate after-work shoppers, while Saturday hours begin at midday to reach weekend crowds.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge has hit 98 to 99 percent construction completion. It will open in early 2026. Workers connected the bridge deck in July 2024, and tests continue on the structure spanning the Detroit River between the United States and Canada.
The structure runs a mile and a half across the river. Six lanes of traffic will flow across it. A 12-foot-wide, toll-free path for pedestrians and cyclists will run alongside vehicle lanes.
Heather Grondin, the chief relations officer, discussed the importance of the path. “It was community-driven. When we did consultations in 2015 and 2016, one theme we heard over and over from both sides of the border was how important it was to include this path,” she said, according to WXYZ 7 News Detroit.
Construction began in 2018. More than 2,500 workers from hundreds of companies on both sides of the border built it. Almost 15,000 people have worked on the project.
The towers stand nearly 720 feet tall. They mirror the curve of a hockey stick in a slap shot as a tribute to Gordie Howe. The main span will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America and be among the longest in the world.
A custom-designed sound wall along Jefferson Ave. features a star-shaped pattern chosen by community vote to reflect Historic Fort Wayne. The facility will have 36 U.S. inspection lanes, 16 in Canada, and new connections to I-75 and local roads.
AI technology will monitor the crossing for any slowdown, collision, or event. About 8,000 trucks and 6,000 commuters cross the Detroit-Windsor corridor each day, supporting more than 25 million U.S. jobs.
Over 10 holiday pop-up bars have opened across metro Detroit through late November, as per WXYZ. These spots span from Downtown Detroit to Royal Oak. They serve themed cocktails and food until Dec. 31.
Park 600 at the Royal Park Hotel began its makeover today. An upside-down Christmas tree now hangs from the ceiling, surrounded by lights and garlands. The bar operates Thursdays through Saturdays on a first-come-first-serve basis, plus Monday, Nov. 24, Wednesday, Nov. 26, and Dec. 28-31.
Cadillac Lodge and Chalet 313 have returned to Campus Martius and Cadillac Square. Both serve drinks with and without alcohol. Cadillac Lodge also has food. They’re open Wednesday through Sunday.
Ale Mary’s Beer Hall in Royal Oak becomes Jingle on Nov. 15. Terry’s Terrace in Harrison Township gets the same concept that day.
Sippin’ Santa at The Skip inside The Belt takes a tropical spin on the season. It runs from Nov. 18 through Dec. 31. Hours are Tuesdays-Thursdays and Sundays from 4 p.m. to midnight, while Fridays and Saturdays stretch until 2 a.m. You can make reservations, and drinks arrive in various holiday mugs.
Weiss Distillery in Clawson brought back Weiss on Ice on Nov. 18. Their winter menu showcases drinks made with craft spirits distilled on-site.
Blitzen’s on Bagley in Southwest Detroit opens Nov. 19. Holiday-themed drinks flow daily.
Miracle pop-up launches Nov. 23 at two spots: The Oakland Art Novelty Co. in Ferndale and Dragonfly in New Center Detroit. Both operate through December 31. Dragonfly opens Tuesdays-Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., then Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to midnight. The Oakland runs daily from 5 p.m. to midnight.
The Iron Gate sits in Downtown Wyandotte on Biddle. It serves cocktails, shots and food. Reservations are encouraged, but bar seating works on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s open daily.
Octopus’ Beer Garden in Mt. Clemens will become the Octopus’ Christmas Garden. Their heated, enclosed patio will serve holiday-themed cocktails and food, though they haven’t announced when it starts.
Larry Orr is getting one of the ship’s life rings back — and the state will still pay $600,000 to settle his lawsuit over police misconduct.
“I feel a whole lot better,” Orr, 77, told The Associated Press this week.
In 1975, eight days after the Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing all 29 men, Orr said he found the life ring and a piece of a lifeboat on shore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
“There was an eerie feeling. Maybe someone had survived,” he recalled. “I looked around for footprints or any other sign of life for a while and never found anything.”
Fast forward 50 years to this autumn: Orr was in talks with the Michigan State Police to settle a lawsuit. He accused Lt. David Busacca of violating his rights during a sexual abuse investigation that was ultimately discredited. Orr had spent five months in jail, in addition to house arrest, before charges were dropped in 2019.
Orr and his attorney, Shannon Smith, said the state suddenly expressed interest in the Fitzgerald life ring during the negotiations. Orr said Busacca was aware that he owned it when he saw paperwork during a search of his Michigan home.
Orr said he felt he was being manipulated, but he also needed money to move out of a recreational vehicle in Yulee, Florida. Smith said throwing the ring into the deal raised the settlement to $600,000 from roughly $300,000.
“I think we should have gotten a million for everything they did to me,” Orr said.
The AP was first to report the peculiar deal on Oct. 23. When state police were asked to explain why it was appropriate, spokesperson Shanon Banner said the department was “not comfortable.”
Additional talks among lawyers led to a new agreement: Orr gets the ring back, while taxpayers will still be on the hook for $600,000 to close the police misconduct lawsuit. Banner acknowledged the terms this week.
For decades, Orr allowed the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, Michigan, to display the orange ring, which has “Fitzgerald” in stenciled letters. Now he might sell it at auction.
Orr said he’s trying to buy a modular home and his wife’s car “is on its last legs.”
Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters fired her government affairs director, Reggie Davis, on Wednesday after investigators discovered he and former council president and convicted sex offender Charles Pugh posed as incoming Ombudsman staff while Davis sought a $197,000-a-year job.
Waters said she acted after reviewing an Oct. 27 report from the Detroit Office of Inspector General that concluded Davis “abused his position” on her staff to obtain information from a private contractor that supplies software to the Ombudsman’s Office. The report found Davis and Pugh contacted WingSwept, the vendor behind the office’s case-tracking system, and represented themselves as part of the team preparing to take over the department.
The Ombudsman’s Office is an independent office that investigates complaints about Detroit city services and employee conduct.
“My review of that OIG report coupled with my independent assessment has resulted in my decision that your position on my staff is immediately terminated due to your conduct that has impugned the integrity of the Detroit City Council and is detrimental to those of us that hold the public trust as elected officials of Detroit including staff,” Waters wrote in a letter to Davis.
According to the OIG, Davis identified himself as a City Council employee and told WingSwept he was part of the incoming Ombudsman team during two phone calls and a video meeting. Pugh, who resigned from the council in 2013 and later served more than five years in prison on child sex-crime convictions, joined at least one call and was introduced by Davis as his “chief of staff.” WingSwept provided the OIG with recordings of the meetings.
The contractor later alerted the actual Ombudsman’s office, saying it had “a couple of phone calls with” Davis and Pugh and initially believed they were “part of the incoming staff for the City of Detroit Office of the Ombudsman.” When the Ombudsman’s office instructed WingSwept to cease communications, the company said it did so immediately.
The investigation began after then-Ombudsman Bruce Simpson learned of the contacts. Simpson’s 10-year term expired in October, and Davis was one of 10 finalists for the position, which requires approval from two-thirds of the nine-member City Council.
In a written response to the OIG, Davis’s attorney, Marcus Baldori, said Davis was using the information to prepare for his potential role in the Ombudsman Office. According to Baldori, Davis had sought only “publicly available or standard pricing information, not internal City data,” and his client’s description of himself as part of the incoming team “was imprecise.”
Baldori wrote that Davis’s communications reflected “over-enthusiastic preparation for an anticipated role,” not misuse of authority, and urged the city not to characterize the actions as an “abuse of authority.”
The OIG disagreed, finding Davis “falsely presented himself as part of the incoming Ombudsman team and abused his position by using his title to improperly access information.” The office recommended “appropriate disciplinary action.”
Davis, a former Wayne County commissioner, has been accused in the past of harassing two women who later secured personal protection orders against him. One woman alleged the mother of Davis’s unborn child threatened to “rip the baby” out of her stomach.
It’s unclear why Davis was working with Pugh, who was sentenced to 5½ to 15 years in 2016 after pleading guilty to two felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
