The University of Michigan is ramping up its crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests by bringing disciplinary charges against 11 current and former students and creating a new role that works with the police department to handle punishment, activists tell Metro Times. The charges stem from campus protests from 10 to 14 months ago. The University of Michigan Board of Regents, which has repeatedly targeted students who have spoken out about Israel’s war in Gaza, brought the charges under a newly revised student code of conduct, according to TAHRIR Coalition, a grassroots pro-Palestinian group.

A judge on Thursday upheld a temporary restraining order that blocks Detroit Thermal from running steam lines though the historic Lafayette Park neighborhood in Detroit, forcing 600 residents of a nearby high-rise apartment to find another source of heat for the winter. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry sided with residents of the nearby townhomes, who filed a lawsuit on July 1 accusing the utility of trespassing and damaging a nationally and city-protected landscape to run steam lines to the nearby 1300 Lafayette high-rise.

A Wayne County judge has barred a blockchain-based real estate company and its affiliates from collecting rent or evicting residents at hundreds of their distressed rental homes in Detroit, unless the properties are brought up to code and receive certificates of compliance from the city. The court order, signed Tuesday by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry, marks a significant development in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the city of Detroit against Florida-based Real Token, its founders Remy and Jean-Marc Jacobson, and more than 165 shell companies tied to their blockchain business.

A battle over a controversial steam project in Detroit’s Lafayette Park Historic District is boiling over as residents accuse utility company Detroit Thermal of trespassing, violating permit conditions, and using intimidation tactics in an effort to install underground steam lines through their historic neighborhood. Leaders of the cooperatively owned townhomes in Lafayette Park say Detroit Thermal resumed construction this month in defiance of a temporary restraining order, prompting renewed outrage and a call for city officials to intervene.

It sounds like something straight out of the TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. A series of viral social media posts claim five women in Detroit have been found dead with tea bags stuffed in their mouths — allegedly the work of a serial murderer dubbed the “Tea Bag Killer” in retaliation for using a controversial smartphone app to gossip. But Detroit police say there is absolutely no truth behind the lurid tale.

This reporting series from Planet Detroit examines the growing role of community health workers (CHWs) in Michigan — trusted professionals who assist residents in navigating housing, food access, chronic illnesses, and the health care system. Proposed Medicaid cuts could undermine funding for these workers, who often come from the same communities they serve. By building trust and drawing on lived experience, CHWs are addressing critical gaps in care that traditional health systems often overlook.

Shanon Seymore had given up. Diagnosed with a rare bleeding disorder called von Willebrand disease, she was in constant pain, unable to work, and on the verge of eviction from her Pontiac home. “Nobody was listening,” she said.

When Terry Pita’s doctor told her she needed to start insulin, she burst into tears. “I just didn’t want to take shots,” she said. “I still cringe.”

Regina Gully knows what it’s like to need help and not know where to turn. Now, as a community health worker with Trinity Health, she spends her days making sure others don’t have to feel that way. “We treat everyone with kindness and respect,” she said.

Community health workers are a vital but often overlooked part of Michigan’s health system, especially as recent federal Medicaid cuts threaten coverage and funding for essential services. They help people manage chronic illnesses, apply for health insurance, find food or housing, and understand what their doctor told them. If you’ve never heard of a CHW or aren’t sure if one could help you, this guide breaks it down.

Now we may never know who was wearing that duck costume at the Halloween garden party. Or for that matter, who killed Alice’s dog. In the Metro Times last month, Bill Krebs, Grosse Pointe Park native and co-creator of the NBC primetime soap-satire Grosse Pointe Garden Society, made an impassioned plea to readers to watch reruns of the show’s first season on the network’s streaming service, Peacock.

Family, friends, and the attorney for Stephen Mason are calling on Michigan State Police to release video footage of the fatal May 16 shooting by a state trooper in Detroit, citing conflicting eyewitness accounts and a growing suspicion of a coverup. They’re also urging state Attorney General Dana Nessel to appoint an independent special prosecutor, saying the state cannot fairly investigate itself.

Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, the longtime leader of one of Detroit’s most influential Black churches, acknowledged Monday night that he had “an inappropriate relationship” with a former church member, but he denies many of the explosive allegations she made in a series of now-deleted TikTok videos. The former member, Melody Walker, said the relationship began in 2002 when she was 22 and Ellis was 47, and continued off and on until about 2018.

A coalition demanding police transparency and accountability is calling on Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to stop the city’s police department from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a controversial immigration raid that led to three arrests, including two protesters. In a letter sent to Duggan last week, the Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability urged Duggan to direct the Detroit Police Department to adopt a “non-cooperation” policy with ICE and take steps to protect Detroiters from federal immigration enforcement.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is once again under fire for targeting pro-Palestinian activists, this time for sending agents and Ann Arbor police to serve subpoenas at their homes in what organizers call a pattern of intimidation and repression. The TAHRIR Coalition, a grassroots pro-Palestinian group, said two of its members were visited by police and agents from Nessel’s office last week, including one activist whose family in West Bloomfield was questioned about their whereabouts, even after agents acknowledged knowing the person no longer lived there. The subpoenas, issued by Nessel, order the activists to appear for questioning at the attorney general’s office on July 30, in connection to ongoing investigations stemming from April raids that targeted organizers across Ann Arbor, Canton, and Ypsilanti.

Ranked choice voting could come to Michigan — if the campaign to get it on the 2026 general election ballot is successful and voters approve. The Rank MI Vote campaign said it has started collecting signatures on Thursday.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan picked up a major endorsement Thursday in his independent bid for Michigan governor, but it should come to no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. The Detroit Regional Chamber’s political action committee unanimously endorsed Duggan more than 15 months before the 2026 election, an unusually early decision that follows months of the group’s favorable polling about the mayor’s prospects.

Every day, Krystal Clark struggles to breathe. The 41-year-old incarcerated woman believes mold at Michigan’s only women’s prison is poisoning her body, growing in her lungs, eating through her ears, and slowly destroying her health while prison officials deny her proper care.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is urging Congress to curb what she calls dangerous and deceptive tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who have been detaining people across the country while wearing masks, plainclothes, and driving unmarked vehicles. In a letter co-signed by 20 other attorneys general, Nessel asked federal lawmakers to pass legislation that would generally prohibit ICE agents from concealing their identity and require them to display proper identification and agency insignia.