A Dearborn-based nonprofit animal shelter is waiving adoption fees through Sunday in an effort to reduce overcrowding. The waived fees apply to all dogs more than six months old and weighing at least 20 pounds. Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit has 53 dogs that meet the criteria, including 10 that have been at the shelter for at least two months.

HGTV, everyone’s favorite reality TV guilty pleasure, is coming back to Detroit. The network announced Thursday that it has green-lighted Condemned, a new home improvement show set in the Motor City. “During the eight one-hour episodes, property investor and rehabber Kristyn Patterson and her builder father, Pancho Patterson, will stop at nothing to rescue The Motor City’s worst houses that are destined for the wrecking ball,” HGTV says in a press release.

Four teenagers know who killed 15-year-old Tyler Johnson in a Southfield hotel room in February 2024. Two of them tried to flee the Westin Southfield Detroit hotel when police arrived, and one was detained for possessing two handguns, including one that was used in the shooting.

Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib is running for a second term, but his announcement Monday was quickly overshadowed by revelations that he and three city council members spent nearly $10,000 in public funds to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration last month. The timing of his re-election bid, coming just hours before the story broke, raises questions about whether Ghalib was trying to get ahead of the controversy. Whatever the case, Ghalib, who made headlines last fall for endorsing Trump’s campaign, posted his re-election announcement on social media Monday afternoon, declaring that he would “continue to serve my city and my community with sincerity, commitment, and integrity, through this position and through other potential prestigious future positions.”

A prominent legal expert is warning Michigan lawmakers against rolling back a court-ordered minimum wage hike, calling it a direct assault on the state’s constitutional protections for voter-led initiatives. University of Michigan law professor Samuel Bagenstos, a former U.S. Justice Department official, sent a letter to legislative leaders on Monday urging them to let the minimum wage and earned sick leave laws take effect as ordered by the Michigan Supreme Court last year. The court struck down a 2018 legislative maneuver that gutted citizen-initiated wage and sick leave increases before they could reach voters.

Thieves broke into Pingree Detroit’s workshop over the weekend, stealing about $5,000 worth of fine leather goods, petty cash, laptops, space heaters, gift and gas cards, and even a signed Pistons jersey gifted to the business for its work with U.S. military veterans. Surveillance video captured the two crooks as they rifled through a room in the workshop at 15707 Livernois on the city’s west side for about 20 minutes. The video also picked up their voices.

A year after her 15-year-old son was shot and killed in a Southfield hotel, Tomika Alexander is still waiting for justice.  Tyler Johnson was killed on Feb. 12, 2024, during a gathering with friends.  Police recovered the gun, and multiple people were in the room when Johnson was killed, but no one has been held accountable, Alexander said Monday. 

The first clear image you’ll see in the pilot for Grosse Pointe Garden Society, the glossy, trashy prime-time murder mystery premiering at 10 p.m. Sunday on NBC (Channel 4 in Detroit), is a giant rectangular sign proclaiming “Mack Avenue Garden Center.” Mack Avenue?

“Trump Derangement Syndrome” is a valid and logical reaction to the deranged behavior of President Donald J. Trump. He is a dangerous buffoon and his second term in the White House may be worse than his first. His clown-car cabinet suggests the cast of characters in the 2006 Mike Judge film Idiocracy, with unqualified and biased secretaries like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Pam Bondi, and Pete Hegseth chosen to do damage to Health and Human Services, the Justice Department, and the Department of Defense.

Tenants at City Club Apartments in Detroit are being evicted for legally withholding rent in escrow while judges are failing to enforce a code meant to protect renters from unsafe living conditions, advocates and tenants say. The 750 Chene Tenants Association and Detroit Tenants Association are calling on city officials to take immediate action to stop the evictions and enforce Detroit’s housing laws. The tenants say they began placing their rent in escrow, which is a legal process recommended by the city, after their elusive landlord refused to fix serious maintenance issues, including persistent water damage and mold, heating and plumbing failures, and broken security features such as faulty entryways and poor lighting.

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist, Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan, and WBEZ, a public radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan region.

Corewell Health has reversed course and will restore gender-affirming care for transgender minors after a week of mounting criticism from civil rights organizations, elected officials, and the LGBTQ+ community. The healthcare system, one of the largest in Michigan, had halted new hormone therapy for minors following a controversial executive order from President Trump that threatened to strip federal funding from hospitals offering such care. That decision made Corewell the first medical system in the state to restrict gender-affirming care for young people, drawing criticism from advocacy groups and public officials, including Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, who made international headlines last fall by endorsing Donald Trump, now finds himself at the center of controversy for standing by that decision despite the president’s recent proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza. Outlined by Trump last week, the plan would block Palestinians from returning to Gaza if it is taken over and redeveloped under U.S. oversight.

An Alabama prison executed a Detroit man Thursday evening after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to intervene, ignoring pleas from his family, attorneys, and death penalty opponents who argued she had the authority to demand his return to Michigan, where the death penalty has been abolished. Demetrius Frazier, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. CST, executed by nitrogen gas at Holman Correctional Facility for the 1991 rape and murder of 41-year-old Pauline Brown in Birmingham, Alabama.

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. There’s a hole in what we know about ice on the Great Lakes. While satellites can see where the ice is, it can be difficult to measure its thickness.

A new poll suggests Michigan voters are increasingly open to breaking with the two-party system in the race for governor, but the survey’s origins raise questions about its objectivity. The Detroit Regional Chamber, a business advocacy group that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s campaign, commissioned the survey, which found that 63.4% of voters believe Michigan should elect an independent governor who is not affiliated with either major party. The results come as Duggan campaigns for governor as an independent, a move that has already shaken up Michigan politics.

Immigrant rights groups are calling on school districts across the state to adopt policies that safeguard children from immigration enforcement actions after the Trump administration’s recent decision to rescind the longstanding “sensitive locations” policy. The ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) have issued a letter to school districts outlining students’ legal rights and how educators can ensure schools remain safe spaces for children.

Now here’s a cool idea. Michigan has brought back its retro license plate styles to help Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s goal to “fix the damn roads.” The Michigan Legislature passed bills to allow the Secretary of State to reissue the classic blue-and-white plates from 1983-2007 as well as black-and-white plates from 1979-1983.

The fear of federal immigration crackdowns is spreading through metro Detroit’s immigrant communities, keeping children out of schools, leaving businesses without workers, and forcing families to make gut-wrenching decisions about their safety and livelihoods. In the weeks since President Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has carried out raids in multiple cities across the country. Although no large-scale raids have been publicly reported in Detroit, ICE agents have been increasingly spotted patrolling neighborhoods with large immigrant populations like Southwest Detroit, according to residents, activists, and elected officials.