Public access to the Wayne County Airport Authority’s monthly meetings has changed, according to officials and an inside source. The move follows public opposition to the use of Willow Run Airport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation-related flights earlier this year.

In February, the WCAA ended an option for the public to attend monthly meetings remotely while keeping the option available for some employees.

Officials say the decision to end remote attendance is meant to prioritize those who attend the meeting in-person and is a part of a broader shift to the Authority’s pre-pandemic policy. However, an inside source says the change is a reaction to strong public opposition against the use of Willow Run Airport for ICE deportation flights.

An anonymous whistleblower shared internal communication with WDET that shows while the public will be barred from attending public meetings remotely, some employees will still be offered the option. Those employees must first be vetted by the officials before receiving a unique, traceable link to attend. 

 The source also tells WDET that public comment had previously been moved to the end of each monthly meeting, raising concerns that the change will limit public input before major decisions are made. 

Under the Freedom of Information Act, WDET requested all flight activity records, agreements, contracts, communications, and financial records related to the use of Willow Run Airport by ICE.

The airport authority is charging WDET $7,991.68 for the information.

Nearly 2 million Muslims will make the greater pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, next week.

Imam Steve Mustapha Elturk is President of the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA). He says this year, Hajj is different due to the ongoing war between Iran, the United States and Israel. 

“Many of our congregations are asking, ‘is it safe to go this year?’ It is very safe,” he says.

Elturk says the U.S. bases are far away from the holy cites in Mecca and Medina. 

“Saudi Arabia really does a great job in terms of safety and security. I’ve been going there for a dozen years, and I see it with my own eyes to make sure that the pilgrims are safe and secure,” he shares.

He says the systems have also changed from people booking Hajj travel through an agency to using the Nusuk app, which can be confusing for users.

“Then they offer you the packages. They ask me if I’m going or taking a group. I have not taken a group in the last few years since they launched the Nusuk… ” It’s different,” he reflects.

He says about a half dozen people are going to Hajj from his congregation this year, but he expects that more people are going from nearby suburbs of Detroit.

Elturk says, although he’s not going to Hajj this year, he provides spiritual guidance for his congregants if asked.

“I have had throughout the years, since some from our community who have gone there call me on the phone, say ‘we just finished this. I don’t know what should I do next, or I did this, is this correct?’ And I try to guide them over the phone sometimes at 3 o’clock in the morning because of the time differences,” he explains.

Hajj takes place during the eighth through 13th of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, following a lunar calendar. Pilgrims do specific tasks while they are in Hajj, what Elturk describes as an opportunity for repentance.

“Hajj is all about repentance, and the Prophet said, peace be upon him, ‘whoever performs Hajj, his or her pilgrimage is accepted, returns as the day he or she was born—in other words, sinless,'” he shares.

Pilgrims will perform Hajj from May 25-30.

Life is becoming less affordable for Michiganders. And in Lansing, despite the constraints they face, many believe lawmakers are not doing enough to change that for residents. 

With state Senator Erika Geiss term limited out of her seat, two Democrats are now vying to improve life for residents in parts of Detroit and Downriver.

Justin Onwenu is running as a Democrat for District 1’s state Senate. He spoke about what he wants to change with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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

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More stories from The Metro

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

With less than six months until the midterm elections, independent candidate Mike Duggan has dropped out of the race.

This week on WDET’s MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben discuss the factors that led the former Detroit mayor to make his decision and the reactions from both Democrats and Republicans.

Even though Duggan faced an uphill battle running as an independent, the general consensus was that if anyone could win in that position, it would be him. Kasben said the current political climate did not allow for that possibility.

Later in the episode, we discuss earmarks, a way to secure funding for local government projects. Following a decision from the Michigan Court of Claims, what lawmakers consider an earmark could change. Gorchow and Kasben also discuss how the evolution of this type of funding led to current criticisms. Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, joins the conversation to help explain the decision.

Wright said the Mackinac Center felt it was the right time to file the lawsuit that led to the Court of Claims decision.

“We thought the grant process was being abused because the voting threshold wasn’t being met,” Wright said. “We looked at the constitutional history and we tried to put a stop to it.”

The Mackinac Center’s challenge focused on two specific grants: one for a minor league baseball stadium in Lansing and another for a baseball stadium in Utica.

• More from WDET:

  MichMash: What are earmarks? A breakdown of the 2026 state budget

  Detroit Evening Report: Mike Duggan drops out of Michigan governor’s race

  MichMash: Why the MEA is withholding its endorsement; Inside Michigan elections

Money is getting tighter.

The cost of life can be even more daunting if you have a kids. Children are expensive — diapers, food, clothing, and so much more. 

We don’t have paid family leave in Michigan, but a public-private partnership has tried to ease the cost burden. Rx Kids provides unrestricted cash to mothers who are at least 16 weeks pregnant or to guardians who have a child who is six months or younger. 

It began in Flint two years ago. Now, Rx Kids has expanded to dozens of communities across Michigan. 

What have the impacts been for moms and kids? And, why is Rx Kids popular among people and places across the political spectrum?

Nushrat Rahman is the Economic Mobility Reporter at the Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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

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More stories from The Metro

Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced the end of his independent campaign for Michigan governor. Duggan said he aimed to ease “the toxic two-party atmosphere in Lansing that’s holding this state back.”

At a press conference in Detroit, Duggan said the two biggest components of the race that held him back were dropping poll numbers and a lack of funding.

“The truth of the matter is, when you’re down 11 points and you’re down in the fundraising, the path is not realistic,” Duggan said.

Duggan launched his campaign in December 2024, one month after Donald Trump won the state in the presidential election.

Duggan said his plan at the beginning of his campaign was to earn 20% of Republican votes and 20% of Democratic votes. This idea, he said, was based on polls that showed 65% of both Republicans and Democrats in Michigan were open to supporting an independent candidate.

“There is a national clamor for someone who will stand up and say ‘I’m tired of these two parties fighting with each other’,” Duggan said.

According to Duggan, his fundraising team raised “more money than the major party candidates,” and 94% of it came from the state of Michigan. However, he said that national funding for independent candidates is still in its infancy. He believes that person will need to be an independent – and independently wealthy.

“Somebody is going to break through, but I’ll make a prediction. It’s somebody who’s got the wealth to be self-funded,” Duggan said.

Duggan’s advice for the remaining partisan candidates is to make sure their platforms are not based on attacking the other side. Having “something that you stand for positively,” he said, is what will make an impact on voters.

“There are people in this state who want change and are willing to work for it, and I’m hoping you’ll see the Democratic and Republican candidates reach out and embrace those folks,” Duggan said.

Reactions roll in

Duggan was a frequent target of criticism from the Michigan Democratic Party, but Chair Curtis Hertel’s tone was more conciliatory.

“As we look ahead, we welcome Mayor Duggan’s supporters into our growing coalition as we work to elect a Democratic governor this November who will continue to move Michigan forward,” Hertel said.

The Detroit Regional Chamber was one of Duggan’s earliest champions, as well as a source of campaign contributions. The Chamber’s president and CEO Sandy Baruah said the organization is still appreciative of the ex-mayor’s efforts.

“Obviously, I am disappointed that Mike Duggan’s campaign for governor is ending, but we are thankful for his leadership for Michigan and driving a critical conversation about how to move our state forward,” Baruah said.

What comes next for Duggan

Concerning his next steps, Duggan said he planned to spend time with his family before he thinks about endorsing candidates who match his beliefs.

“If there are candidates in this state that take up the message of fixing the schools, fixing affordable housing, getting the jobs of the future by working together, I’m going to be open to endorsing them in the fall campaign,” Duggan said.

About 2 million Muslims will perform Hajj, the greater pilgrimage in Saudia Arabia this month. But the U.S. Embassy of Saudia Arabia is asking pilgrims to reconsider their trip due to the ongoing war between Iran and the U.S.

Juber Ahmed, a pharmacist, and his mom Shamima Akther live in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

In January, Ahmed found out he and his mom’s applications to perform Hajj were accepted after months of waiting. He dropped to his knees and performed a prayer of gratitude.

“Honestly, that feeling I still can’t find the words to express. I was in tears, did sajdah as-sukr, and then I hugged my mom, and both of us just were in tears,” he expresses.

Akter is 63 years old. She’s looking forward to going this year while she’s still physically able to make the rigorous journey.

“Alhamdulillah, I’ve been waiting for a long time to go to Hajj with my oldest son. It’s Allah’s will,” she exclaims. 

It’s a dream she’s had for more than 30 years, since her kids were little.

Ahmed and Akther are among a few thousand pilgrims from the United States who will perform Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Wahid Elfeky is a part of the Aleman Groups USA travel agency in New York, which has been around for 30 years. He says that until 2019, as many as 16,000 people from the United States would make the Hajj each year.

But Saudi Arabia has instituted quotas to prevent overcrowding. He says now the number is closer to 5,000 people. 

Embassy warns travelers, but pilgrimage continues

In April, the U.S. Embassy of Saudi Arabia issued an alert, asking American pilgrims to reconsider going to Hajj due to the ongoing war between Iran and the U.S.

Ahmed sat his mom down and asked her if she wanted to postpone the trip. Akther says she feels a strong conviction to go this year. 

“I told my son, ‘I will go alone. Don’t go, you have two kids.’ My son said, ‘what are you saying, I am going to take you,'” she shares. 

Ahmed says he is still going.

“I know it’s a risk, but I also know that this chance may not come back around,” he says.

Performing the pilgrimage at least once is mandatory for all able-bodied Muslims who can afford the costs of travel.

Imam Steve Mustapha Elturk is the co-chair of the Imams Council of Michigan. He says several people have asked him whether they should still go. He assures them it’s safe and encourages them to go, noting the U.S. military installations in Saudi Arabia are far from the holy sites.

“Definitely there’s nothing going on there in terms of war or missiles or anything of that sort,” he shares.

Faith over fear

In Washington D.C., Sana Imam is preparing to make the hajj later this month. The health policy and communications professional is going with her husband.

“I’m still planning to go because the level of spiritual transformation that is possible to experience at Hajj might not be possible anywhere else for a lot of Muslims,” she explains.

For most Muslims, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Imam says she’s focusing her attention on preparing for the trip.

“I’ve been doing like, 30 minutes on the Stairmaster machine every time I go to the gym, just because Hajj involves miles on foot every day. Spiritually, I’ve been trying to slow down my prayers instead of rushing through them,” she says.

Although she’s concerned about the ongoing war, Imam says she’s leaning on her faith to get through this time of uncertainty.

Hajj is performed between the eighth and the 13th of the Islamic month Dhu al-Hijjah—that’s May 25- May 30. For many American Muslims, the opportunity to go to Hajj outweighs their fear of not going to perform one of the greatest acts of worship in Islam.

Drivers can expect to pay at least $1.50 more for a gallon of gasoline this Memorial Day weekend than they did a year ago.

AAA says it expects more than 1.3 million people in Michigan to travel at least 50 miles from home between May 22 and May 25 despite high fuel costs.

But is that estimate realistic?

Gas Buddy published its own seasonal travel survey. 56% of the people who responded say they plan to drive more than 2 hours to their destination this summer. That’s down from 69% in 2025. 

67% said gas prices are directly impacting their driving plans. 36% said rising costs are causing them to take fewer road trips.

Gas Buddy Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says the average price could reach $4.80 per gallon between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“That would be higher than 2022’s summer average of $4.43 a gallon,” he says. “But much of that is going to be contingent on whether or not the Strait of Hormuz reopens, and when it does.”

War fuels uncertainty

Iran has restricted ship traffic in the strait since the U.S. attacked the oil-rich country in March. DeHaan says that’s costing the world about 20 million barrels of oil daily.

The U.S. and other nations have released some of their strategic oil reserves to minimize the war’s impact. But DeHaan says that’s only a short-term fix.

“It’s kind of like replacing a broke water main with a paper straw—it’s just not enough,” he says. “And once those releases end, we could see a bit of whiplash with higher prices.”

Rolling back or suspending state and federal fuel taxes may help temporarily. But DeHaan says he doubts drivers will set any travel records this summer if prices climb.

“Those types of big increases are hard for many Americans to stomach,” he says. “And that is why we’re likely seeing a little bit of a decline in the amount of Americans willing to hit the road.”

WDET is examining Highland Park as part of our Crossing the Lines series. 

Hidden within the history of the Detroit enclave are the remnants of a secret society based on racism and murder. 

It was exposed during a trial about a century ago that became a national sensation.  

And then it seemingly vanished. 

This is the story of the Black Legion.  

More vicious than the Klan 

 Across a driveway from the Highland Park Fire Department stands a boarded-up, multi-story office building. 

Author Tom Stanton gazes at the structure, one he says is filled with the echoes of powerful officials and mass killings. 

“The old city hall is gone, but this is an administrative building,” he said. “Over time, the fire department was here, the police department was here. It was also home to a court. All of those organizations would have had members in the Black Legion.” 

The Black Legion

It’s a vigilante group built on bigotry, crime and murder. 

And Stanton knows it well. 

His book, “Terror in the City of Champions,” follows the hate group’s movements during a time when Detroit sports teams were all winning titles. 

He notes the Black Legion was born in Lima, Ohio, from the fading ashes of a Ku Klux Klan the Legion’s founder felt was too tame. 

“There was a little bit of animosity because the guy who started the Black Legion had left the Klan. He didn’t view it as aggressive enough, the Klan, and he felt there needed to be an organization that was willing to do more,” Stanton said.  

It was the 1920s and 30s. Jobs were scarce. 

University of California Santa Cruz Professor Emerita Dana Frank examined those years. 

She says the era was ripe to create a ready market for Legion recruits. 

“Working class white men were looking for an answer and they’re looking for a scapegoat. And they turn to the Black Legion, an overtly fascist, white supremacist, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-African American secret organization.” 

A haven for hate  

The white supremacist group spread across Ohio and Michigan. 

And Stanton says Highland Park became a hotbed of Black Legion activity. 

The enclave’s police chief, fire and police commissioners and a city councilman were all members. 

Even, Stanton says, Highland Park’s mayor at the time, Ray Markland. 

“The publisher of the “Highland Parker,” Art Kingsley, was targeted by the Black Legion because he kept ripping into Mayor Markland. One of the gunmen for the Black Legion moved into Highland Park with the idea of assassinating him. In the end, he didn’t. The gunman had infiltrated the American Legion and came to actually like what Kingsley stood for.” 

Others were not as fortunate. 

Legion members dressed in black robes emblazoned with skull-and crossbones symbols, their hoods topped by pirate hats bearing the Jolly Roger. 

Death was their motif. 

The Legion committed an estimated 50 murders in Michigan. 

Historian Dana Frank says the group lured new recruits to parties or barbeques, then suddenly forced them to join the Legion at gunpoint. 

“It was even more secret than the Klan had been,” Frank said. “A lot of these Legion people had been in the Klan. They would be wearing black outfits with gold trim and pirate hats. And it’s quite chilling. Who sewed that robe? Somebody’s wife or daughter or mother.” 

Author Tom Stanton adds that “recruits” joining to save their lives, while planning to avoid the hate group afterwards, were in for a shock. 

“Many of those 50 murders were actually killings of Legion members,” he said. “They had violated the code or didn’t come to meetings or in some ways were an affront to what the Black Legion supposedly stood for.” 

The Black Legion unravels 

Yet Stanton says what eventually exposed the Black Legion’s crimes was the killing of federal organizer Charles Poole. 

And his death stemmed from an age-old motive for murder, jealousy. 

“A local official of the Black Legion was upset that Poole was married to a woman that he had a crush on years before down south. He hatched this plan to spread the word at meetings that Poole had abused his wife. ‘What are we going to do about this?’” 

The answer was to pronounce a death sentence. 

“They got a couple of carloads of guys. Poole was taken out to Gulley Road, not too far from the Rouge auto plant, and assassinated.” 

Investigators initially didn’t realize the murder was connected to the Legion, so no law enforcement officials working with the group could squash the probe. 

They eventually traced the killing back to a hitman for the hate group. 

Stanton says the self-described “executioner” Dayton Dean, then committed the Legion’s cardinal sin. 

He confessed to the crime. And to the existence of the secret society he was part of. 

Stanton said, “Dayton Dean wasn’t the brightest guy and he was easily manipulated by investigators. They promised him cigars and special treatment in his prison cell. He loved the attention and he was willing to talk. He just couldn’t resist it.” 

Dean also unveiled the bloody secrets of the Black Legion in court. 

Historian Dana Frank says evidence later showed the Wayne County prosecutor in the case, Duncan McCrea, had been part of the Legion himself, though he vehemently denied it. 

“(McCrea) chose to prosecute in 1936. And that’s what really broke the story. The membership basically crawled back into the woodwork. That doesn’t mean that they changed their ideas. But the risk of being part of the Black Legion had become much greater.” 

Court cases capture a national audience 

There was a second trial involving the hate group months later, this time for the murder of Silas Coleman, who had been killed prior to Poole’s death. 

Coleman was shot by a Legion member who wanted to know “how it felt to kill a Black man.” 

The cases resulted in multiple convictions and national headlines. 

Within a year Hollywood had already made two movies based on the events. 

One featured a young Humphrey Bogart as a fictional version of the group’s hitman. 

In a desperate, terrified voice, Bogie said, “They’ll kill me for telling you. Them Black Legion guys don’t fool. I can’t get out. Nobody ever lived to get out of the Legion.” 

But author Tom Stanton says the trials raised concerns about who actually was in the hate group. 

“Wives and children were discovering that their fathers were members of the Black Legion. It was a secret society, even from your spouse. People were wondering, ‘Is my neighbor a member? Public officials?’ It was this great mystery, like the stuff of a radio serial at the time.”  

In fact, a popular radio show created an episode loosely based on the trials, where the renamed “White Legion” was brought down by the hero of the series. 

“I am the one they call The Shadow,” boomed a voice over the airwaves. “The White Legion is about to be exposed!”   

The secret society disappears 

But in real life, historian Dana Frank says FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew all about the Black Legion and its ties to the Klan. 

Yet no other members were ever charged. 

Frank says some researchers believe they know why. 

 “J. Edgar Hoover didn’t go after the Black Legion because Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president at the time, didn’t want him to. There were Ku Klux Klan members and racists in Congress, particularly in the Senate, and the New Deal coalition was dependent on the votes of those Southern Democrats. And they would not want him to touch the Black Legion.”  

Frank says the FBI director argued the hate group had not violated federal law, despite Michigan officials’ assertion that the Legion’s activities had crossed state lines. 

“Hoover immediately shut down any investigation. He told all his agents not to do any further investigation of the Legion without his explicit permission,” Frank said. 

The U.S. was then hurtling towards World War II. 

And the Black Legion seemingly vanished from the national consciousness.  

Author Tom Stanton says those associated with the group had a stake in erasing it from history. 

“Most people didn’t want to tout their involvement. They wanted to bury it,” he said. “The black gowns were discovered in swamps. Some were burning them. It wasn’t something to be proud of.” 

Stanton says scrubbing the memory of the Legion extended through generations. 

“Decades on, you don’t want to be bragging about your great grandfather who was a member of a hate organization. And great grandpa probably didn’t want anybody to know about it either, other than the guys who were at the meeting.” 

After almost a century, historians agree few people recall the Black Legion’s atrocities or its role in Michigan and especially Highland Park. 

Ironically, the hate group that secretly inspired terror has regained one of its most cherished goals. 

Anonymity. 

Partisanship isn’t just a Washington problem. 

This year, Michigan’s Legislature has been one of the slowest in recent memory as only a few bills passed since January. This is happening as costs keep climbing and families keep stretching. Life is getting really expensive and people want their leaders to take action.

With state Senator Erika Geiss, who is overseeing parts of Detroit and Downriver, unable to run for re-election, two Democrats are now vying to fix the problem of rising costs.

One of them is former state House representative Abraham Aiyash. He spoke about his campaign and his plans with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

Editor’s note: this conversation discussed the possibility of data centers recycling water. Water sprayed or circulated in evaporative cooling systems can be recycled at data centers. But the recycling process requires significant on-site treatment to manage high concentrations of salts and other contaminants.

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

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More stories from The Metro

May 18 marks the 99th anniversary one of the deadliest school massacres in American history. 

The Bath School Disaster claimed the lives of dozens of children, and people in the small Clinton County community are still reckoning with the tragedy today. 

They’re working to preserve the memories of those they lost to make sure they’re never forgotten.

In the months before May 18, 1927, a disgruntled and embittered Bath school board member began planting hundreds of pounds of explosives in the Bath Consolidated School building.  

When they went off that May morning, 44 people died in the explosion and the ensuing collapse of half the building. More than 50 were injured. Most of the victims were children. S

In the weeks after, the community mourned but moved quickly to put the tragedy behind them. 

Within a year and a half, a new school building went up, and for decades, the survivors rarely talked about what happened that day. 

“People frequently asked me, ’What was it like growing up with a survivor?’ And I just say it was the same as anybody, because we knew what happened, but nobody ever talked about it ,” Bath resident Susan Hagerman said.

Hagerman’s father and three of his siblings were all in the building when it exploded. 

“My dad and the sisters were buried. His younger brother was in the part that did not get damaged,” she said.

Michelle Allen says her experience growing up with her father, another survivor, was similar.

“The subject didn’t come up. It was known, and that was about it, ” she said.

But Hagerman says that began to change around the 1980s, when some survivors started sharing what they remembered.

“They started opening up, because they realized it needs to be talked about. It needs to get out there,” Hagerman said.

Allen recalls being struck by something her father shared about the time of the explosion.

“Daddy said he heard nothing and saw nothing, absolute dead silence. Since then, I’ve heard that others experienced that too, but I never heard that before, and I didn’t know daddy had gone through that ,” Allen said.

Another catalyst for change came at around the same time, according to Hagerman. 

“The elementary school principal, Jim Hixson, looked out in the trash one day and saw some things out there and went out and investigated,” Hagerman said. “Somebody had cleaned out a storage closet and thrown all these things out there, and they were artifacts,” .

Hixson started the Bath School Museum Committee along with a group of survivors to preserve these artifacts and what people had kept hidden for years. 

What they collected ended up being displayed in the lobby of Bath Middle School’s auditorium. 

That include a photo of former Bath superintendent Emory Huyck who was killed in the bombing. 

“The kids all loved him. His wife was a music teacher. The kids loved her.”

Further down the wall is a statue of a little girl holding a cat. The sculpture was funded with donations that came in from across the state following the bombing. It stood in the building that replaced the one that was lost. 

 “It’s been told that students would walk in in the morning and put their hand on her, and they would know it would be okay that day,” Hagerman said.

She shares a story about a small wooden chair sitting on a cabinet.

“The day of the explosion, some kindergarten student was so traumatized they picked up their chair and ran home with it,” Hagerman said.

Beyond that, there’s dozens of news clippings and pictures amid other school memorabilia. But these artifacts are only available for viewing by appointment or during public events.  Hagerman says the original school’s cupola, which survived the explosion and has been on display outside for years, also needs protection. 

“The cupola that sits in the park is over 100 years old, and it needs to get inside, get out of the elements ,” she said.

So, over the past few years, the committee has set its sights on building a freestanding museum in the park where the school once stood.
 
Now, a third generation is getting involved, including Hagerman’s son Chris.
 
“I want to make sure that the story continues, and I want to get folks my age involved and keep the story alive,” Chris Hagerman said.

The group has been fundraising to hit a $5 million goal and revealed designs for the museum in 2024.  A documentary has been produced as a part of the campaign, and recently, the committee received grant funding to digitize some of its collections.

Although the committee has only raised a fraction of what they need to begin construction, Hagerman hopes to make progress with a memorial garden that potentially could be ready in time for the 100^th anniversary next year. 

“We thought we’d start with small bits and pieces and try to build and then show people that, hey, this is something that can really happen,” he said.

But even without the museum, community members will continue commemorating the tragedy.

They’ll gather for an annual candlelit vigil on the night of the May 18 to read each name of the victims and keep the memories of those they lost alive. 

This story was originally published on WKAR.

Five years ago drug overdoses were killing more than 3,000 people a year in Michigan. It was the worst the state had seen. Behind that number were parents, sons and daughters — people who’d been trying to get well for years.

That number is coming down. By the state’s early count, last year had the fewest overdose deaths in more than a decade.

But the people who do this work are cautious about it. Fewer deaths may not mean fewer people in danger. 

Addiction touches lives in different ways. For many of us, it might be indirectly. One analysis put the cost to Michigan last year at $38 billion: lost work, lost wages, courts, treatment. 

Now there’s money to fight this—millions from the settlement with the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma. Detroit gets a share, and it’s deciding how to spend it now.

Ali Abazeed leads Detroit’s health department, and founded Dearborn’s before that. He spoke to The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about what the city is doing to reduce overdose deaths and help residents be healthier.

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Sherry Miller is a mental health clinician with the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network. She has a dual role in Highland Park as part of the co-response team and the mobile clinic.

“We go out into the community, to schools, to churches, events, wherever we are invited to bring mental health awareness to kind of decrease the stigma. We can do brief therapy right there on the spot, assess individuals’ mood… and get them connected with services,” she says.

In her role with co-response, she works with the police department as a mental health counselor who aids in mental health emergencies.

“So if there’s a mental health call… they’ll dispatch me through the radio. Either I’ll meet them there, [or] I’ll follow them there and kind of assess the situation and what’s going on with that individual,” she explains.

She says Highland Park residents were instrumental in getting a partnership going between DWIHN and crisis intervention. 

Miller says since her start in late December, there have been about 70 mental health phone calls. In her role, Miller assesses the situation and tries to de-escalate. 

She says there are several police officers within the Highland Park Police Department who are also trained to respond to mental health calls. 

“It may go a different route, versus somebody being talked to by somebody that’s trained to de-escalate, to calm them down… I think that makes a difference,” she shares.

Miller says she attends city meetings to connect with community members to understand their needs, bring them resources and show them how to sign up for services.

Autism Awareness comes to Highland Park

Last month, Sherry Miller organized the city’s first Autism Awareness & Acceptance event.

Miller says she speaks with parents who are concerned about getting help for their kids. They struggle with things like behavioral issues, receiving special education services at school and understanding autism.

Miller says more needs to be done to support parents. Having more advocacy events could help parents get access to testing and find new ways to improve the lives of their children, she says.

The event featured an advocacy walk, resource vendors, and presentations. There were also giveaways, music and workshops. Miller noted the importance of the event for connecting with parents and “talking to the educators that kind of know what to do, what to look for.”

Miller has also created a resource book for residents.

Health experts and urban planners have long believed that planting more trees in residential areas is good for everyone in those neighborhoods.

A new study shows that’s not necessarily so.

Researchers at Michigan State University found that while trees do reduce stress and extend longevity, the benefits vary based on other factors.

Professor Amber Pearson led the study. She and her team examined the relationship between residential tree canopies and allostatic load. That’s the cumulative wear-and-tear that stress has on the human body. Pearson says they confirmed that trees improve human health.

“What we found was that having higher percentage of residential trees was associated with lower allostatic load scores,” she says. “In other words, it’s good for your health.”

But Pearson found something surprising: It wasn’t good for everyone.

Researchers used federal health data on 40,000 people across the country. They also looked at satellite data from tree canopies in about 10 million U.S. census tracts.

Pearson says health benefits varied based on things like education, income, and employment.

“We found a relationship in those that were more socioeconomically advantaged, but not the more vulnerable or disadvantaged participants,” she says.

The study found that Hispanic and non-Hispanic white participants saw significant improvement, while non-Hispanic Black participants did not.

Pearson says social and economic stress may override nature’s health benefits. 

“Trees alone may not be enough to overcome those stressors in those populations,” she says. “We really need to do more to understand those stressors and that’s an area of future research.”

Pearson says the findings could challenge people’s assumptions about trees.

“Trees are not a panacea,” she says.

The study appears in the Lancet Regional Health – Americas.

This story is a part of WDET’s on-going series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project. 

If you’re a leader in Detroit, your attention is trained on a big task: attract more people to the city. 

That’s for good reason — with more people comes more tax revenue. With more revenue, Detroit can provide better social services, quicker Detroit Department of Transit buses, more paved roads, and working streetlights.

But the city is running into a problem when it comes to increasing its population: High property taxes. 

Because property taxes are capped until a property is sold, homebuyers in Detroit neighborhoods that have become more desirable bear the burden of potentially very high taxes. As an example, hundreds of homes will see their taxes climb above $10,000. That’s according to an Outlier Media estimate of the city’s 2026 tax roll. 

So what does it mean when the system rewards staying still and punishes moving in? What does that do to a city trying to grow?

Kevin Bain is the chief financial officer for Public Sector Consultants, and a former debt manager for the city of Detroit. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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May is Mental Health Month and a special symposium on the subject will be held at Wayne State University on Friday.  The event is called Breaking the Stigma and the underlying idea is to make people less reluctant to talk about mental health issues. 

Shantalea Johns is an assistant professor and director of continuing education at Wayne State’s School of Social Work. She says she hopes the symposium will provide Detroiters with a safe space to discuss mental health issues.  Jones would like attendees to take some action after the event ends and ask their loved ones how they’re doing.

The Breaking the Stigma symposium takes place at Wayne State University’s MacGregor Conference Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

President Trump is visiting Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. Michigan lawmakers are warning him against agreeing to any deals that would allow Chinese electric vehicles into the U.S.

While they are not currently available in the states, President Trump suggested he may be open to allowing them during a visit to the Detroit Economic Club earlier this year. The EVs have become popular, low-cost sellers in Europe and are now available in Canada and Mexico.

Legislation has been introduced in Washington to ban sale of the vehicles. That includes a bill co-sponsored by Democratic Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin and Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno.

Slotkin argues that having those models on U.S. roads driving near military bases and civilian infrastructure could be a security risk.

“Taking all that data, all that video, all that mapping and sending that back,” says Slotkin. “As someone who’s from the Pentagon, that is the exact detailed information an adversarial nation loves to have in their war planning.”

While Slotkin acknowledges that major tech companies, such as Google, are already collecting people’s data, she argues those companies must follow U.S. laws when handling that information.

Another concern is the impact it could have on American manufacturers, who would stand to lose out on sales.

Republican John Moolenaar represents Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District. He warns that one of the factors keeping Chinese vehicle prices down are unethical labor practices in the country.

“Chinese companies use slave labor to undercut the fair wages of hard-working Americans,” says Moolenaar.

Lawmakers say the U.S. can’t compete with the way the Chinese government subsidizes their auto industry. They argue that creates artificially low pricing for Chinese products that  American companies can’t compete with.

For over two decades the vacant Roselawn Apartments sat in disarray serving as a reminder of what Highland Park used to be.

The multi-unit building completed in 1927 served residents of the city seeking opulence and the finer things in life. Slogans such as “Roselawn Apartments – A Delightful Place To Live” reinforced the notion of luxury. Catering to nurses, doctors, and teachers Roselawn Apartments established itself as the place to live.

However, the 1980s brought on a series of challenges for the building. The city saw Ford sell off its Historic Highland Park plant in 1981.. Six years later Chrysler would start preparing to leave. A rapidly changing Industrial landscape mixed with the city’s demographics changing created the perfect storm for The Roselawn Apartments to ultimately become vacant by the close of the 90’s. With many units’ having asbestos issues, the only option was to bring the building down. 

The week of April 20, local residents gathered to watch as demolition crews from Adamo Group brought down the structure. As the scene unfolded spectators expressed mixed feelings.

“It’s so sad. Highland Park used to be such a wonderful place,” longtime Highland Park resident Uline Smith said.

Though overall feelings were generally positive, residents expressed concerns about a nonprofit financing the project, citing Highland Park’s lack of funds to support it.

Ronald Thomas Reed, another longtime resident, pointed out the need for more housing but also stated the city needs to do more to bring in employers so that those residents have a place to work.

“If you want people to move into the city, create employment opportunities,” Reed said.

The Roselawn Apartment building is the latest notable structure in Highland Park to be demolished joining the Highland Towers and others as the city makes way for a renewal.

We reached out to the mayor’s office and the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, but received no comment.

The process of the demolition shown through photographs.  Click photos to enlarge. Credit: Isaiah Lopez, WDET

The 13th district state Senate seat is open as Democrat Rosemary Bayer is stepping down after one term. There are several people running to represent the district that spans Northville, Plymouth, and West Bloomfield.

One of those individuals is Cecil George. The owner of a landscaping company, George has never before held public office. 

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke to him about why he’s running.

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