Triumph Church is accused of improperly enriching Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr.
The post IRS complaint targets Detroit mayoral candidate Kinloch and his church over $1.3M home appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
The City of Dearborn says new absentee ballots will be mailed to residents after a printing error was discovered.
City Clerk George Darany says the original ballots included the name of a city council candidate who dropped out of the race.
Darany says people should throw away the old ballot and fill out the new one. Voters who have already submitted their ballot or those who do not send in the correct ballot will have their ballot ‘duplicated’—which does not mean counted twice.
“So in other words, we will have two people assigned to remove the ballot and put it into the duplicate new ballot, so everything they chose would be transferred to the new ballot,” says Darany.
Voters should receive the new ballots in the next ten days.
Early voting begins in Dearborn October 25.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, Michigan chapter is encouraging local mosques to step up protection after an individual threatened to burn down a mosque in Dearborn Heights this week.
CAIR Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid says he’s concerned in light of the political climate and the attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc on Sunday.
“We encourage all mosques in the state of Michigan to review the care community safety kit an to make sure that they have the property security measures for the Friday congressional prayers.”
Walid says he hopes Dearborn Heights Police investigate the threats at The Islamic Institute of America as a potential hate crime.
He says several mosques in Michigan have received threats in recent weeks.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education voted not to start a lengthy selection process to fill a vacant seat and will instead offer the seat to the runner up of the last special election.
Current board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo is expected to resign and start as the city of Detroit’s next Ombudsman.
During a special meeting the board recommended leveraging the finalist from the July 2025 vacancy process, because it has been less than 90 days since a thorough, transparent, and public search was conducted.
The Arab American Women’s Business Council and the New Economy Initiative are announcing their 2025 Pitch Competition. Local Small Businesses and entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas and compete for seed money. Cash prizes between $1000 and $3000, and a grand prize of $5000 will be offered.
The application deadline is October 17. Eligible applicants must be in the ideation phase or have a business less than five years old.
The event will take place at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn on November 19. Visit the Arab American Women’s Business Council’s Facebook page for more information and to apply.
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Detroit voters will elect two at-large city council candidates in 2025. Incumbents Coleman Young II and Mary Waters are on the ballot. So are former council member Janeé Ayers and Detroit Fire Department Community Relations Chief James Harris.
Ayers joined the council in 2015. She was appointed to replace Saunteel Jenkins, who vacated her seat to become the CEO of The Heat and Warmth Fund. Ayers won a special election in 2016 and secured a full four-year term in the 2017 general election. She ran for re-election in 2021 but lost.
At the time, the federal government was investigating corruption in city government. FBI agents searched her home for evidence but found none. The Justice Department closed the case in 2025 without charging her.
Ayers says if not for that ordeal, voters would have re-elected her.
“It was horrible, but I’ve come through it,” she says.
Ayers says she couldn’t talk about the investigation until now but welcomes voters’ questions about it. She also says it helped her understand many of the problems Detroit faces.
“I’ve lived it in a way that makes me so much more keen on the issues that people are dealing with,” she says.
One of those issues is crime and how to fight it.
Detroit has seen a steady drop in the number of homicides and other violent crimes in recent years. Despite that, President Donald Trump has insisted crime is out of control in Detroit and other U.S. cities.
Vice President JD Vance repeated those claims while visiting Howell, Michigan, and said Trump would send the National Guard to Detroit if Governor Gretchen Whitmer requests it.
Ayers doubts she would.
“She and I know each other well,” Ayers says. “If she did, she’d have some serious questions to answer.”
Ayers says the federal government doesn’t need to police the streets of Detroit. But she does see a problem on the horizon—replacing Detroit Police officers who are retiring.
“We’ll be losing a lot of the institutional knowledge in those folks that have been on the job,” she says.
Ayers chaired the Public Health and Safety committee throughout her years on the council. She says the city needs to encourage young people to join the Detroit Police Department as older officers leave.
“We definitely need to strengthen that pipeline for Detroiters to start taking those positions,” she says. “So that we just have people that are from our community policing our community.”
Besides public safety, Ayers says she’s concerned about affordable housing in Detroit. One reason why it hasn’t been affordable for many, she says, is the formula the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses to calculate the city’s median income.
“For us, it is Detroit, Warren, and Livonia, and they take the median income from those three cities,” she says. “We can’t get a median income that makes sense for Detroiters as long as we’re compared to those two cities.”
Ayers says more Detroiters could afford to buy a home if they had better jobs and better access to transportation. She would also like to pick up where she left off with a task force to help people returning to the city after being incarcerated.
While Ayers hasn’t been on the council for almost four years, she has been busy running her own consulting company and returning to work for the city’s recreation department where she started.
“I’ve been right here doing all the things I would have done with or without the title,” she says.
Former council member is challenging two incumbents who beat her in 2021. She’s confident voters will give her another chance.
Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
The post Janeé Ayers seeks return to Detroit City Council appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
In about a month Detroiters vote to re-shape the city’s government.
After a dozen years, a new mayor will lead the Motor City.
But Detroit City Council member Scott Benson hopes one thing stays the same. The incumbent is running for reelection to represent northeast Detroit.
Benson says Council District 3 faces a flood of problems, including dealing with actual and sometimes massive flooding.
Listen: Councilman Scott Benson says he wants more time in office to bring jobs, better infrastructure to northeast Detroit
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Scott Benson: We still have to help with public safety, we still need to help with jobs. We still need to help grow our infrastructure. We need to reboot our infrastructure, in many ways. Our infrastructure is hundreds of years old in certain places within the city of Detroit. And you don’t see it, so it’s easy not to think about it. When we look at stormwater infrastructure, advocating for new pipes, advocating for green stormwater to make us a more resilient space, that takes work. And it doesn’t happen without the heavy lifting and being very strategic and prescriptive around how we rebuild our city from underneath the ground as well. We can get the development from private investment. But the infrastructure, that’s public investment. We have to work with the state, the county and the federal government, which has its ebbs and flows, as we all know. We have to work with all those partners to make sure that we continue to invest in our infrastructure.
Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: When you are trying to pay for that work, there’s been a lot of talk about the so-called “financial cliff” the city’s facing because federal and other sources of funding are running out. In your view, what should the city do to get more revenue in?
SB: I want to go back to that statement about the financial cliff. I am a fiscal hawk on the Detroit City Council. We have been very strategic in how we utilize that federal funding. It was used as icing and not the cake. We have lived beneath our means in the city of Detroit. I want to continue to ensure we do that we save more than we spend. And we just saw where the mayor made the announcement that we got about a $60 million surplus that we’re going to reprogram this year. So we are in a position where we’re not worried about the loss of federal money.
To get more money in, we’re going to have to continue what we’ve done. Since I’ve been on the Detroit City Council there’s been over a 50% increase in the General Fund. We need to continue that growth. Which means we need more investment, we need to continue population growth. And that’s how we grow our General Fund.
QK: Some of the Detroit mayoral candidates have talked about possibly raising taxes on certain things in the downtown or other areas. What do you think of those proposals?
SB: The one that I’m thinking of is a tax on events. I’m not opposed to that. I believe the thought is that we would use that revenue to offset other tax obligations. It would be an additional opportunity to reduce property taxes. We have to figure out a way to reduce the cost to live in the city of Detroit when it comes to operating a home. We have to incentivize people to move back into the city of Detroit. And our property taxes and our car insurance, that’s a disincentive. We need to figure that part out. But having a tax of that nature, it hits on the downtown-specific events and it’s something that’s been done successfully around the country. So I am more than happy to take a look at how we can implement something like that in the city of Detroit.
If we want to grow our city, we have to do it by bringing in everybody.
QK: When I talk to some people around the city, they still bring up the specter of crime. They fear sometimes being in their own neighborhoods, including over in your district, which I go through every single day. In your view, what can be done about that? I know you favor the ShotSpotter system, which is supposed to alert police when it detects gunfire. And there’s lots of talk about community policing. But if you do something like add more personnel to the police department, that would take extra money. So what do you see as the best ways to address crime?
SB: ShotSpotter was something that I championed back in 2015, before it was cool. CVI, community violence intervention, I’ve also championed that in the third district. and we’ve seen results. So I continue to champion those items. We’ve given a pay raise to our police department so that we can keep and attract additional police officers. But we’re going to have to continue to leverage those items because we are not a wealthy district. We don’t have any of the traditional sexy neighborhoods. But we see a huge brunt of the crime, which means that my bosses, the residents, are often victims of crime. And when you tell other people, “Hey, come to the city. We’ve got all these assets, the quality of life that you’re looking for.” People say crime, either real or perceived, is an issue. If we want to grow our city, we have to do it by bringing in everybody. Income diversity is something that we need here in the city of Detroit.
QK: You’d been caught up in some controversy a while back as part of a federal corruption investigation into several public officials in the city over bribery allegations. They charged former Detroit City Council Member Andre Spivey with that. But they closed other cases at the beginning of this year with no charges filed against anyone else, including yourself. Do you feel exonerated after all that? Or are there any lingering concerns that somehow you could have been tarnished to where opponents can try to throw something at you about it?
SB: Any time that the federal government comes to your house unannounced, that’s a problem. But the grand jury did not indict anyone in my office, in my colleague’s office, none of us. The federal government even provided a letter indicating they were dropping the investigation, which it rarely, rarely does. There’s always going to be that. “Oh, your name was spoken with those words.” But you know what? They took a very deep dive into me, my personal finances. And we came up clean. My team came up clean, my colleague’s team came up clean. So I do feel exonerated.
QK: One thing I try to always ask anybody that’s running for office is why people should vote for them. So what would you tell voters? Why should they reelect you to Council?
SB: Number one, I have added value to my district when it comes to jobs. And I am all about jobs. My three priorities are jobs, jobs and more jobs. And we are not a typical area where people think about investment. Because we are overwhelmingly low-income in the third district, it does not mean that we are low-quality. I fought for the “Dining with Confidence” ordinance when I saw there were a number of major restaurant chains that thought they could serve residents on the northeast side of Detroit poisoned food, improper food. I fought very hard and lost once but won the second time to get an ordinance that holds restaurants accountable. They have to publicize their scores when it comes to their food compliance and food safety. It’s not just about being treated well in the downtown area. We pay taxes on the northeast side of Detroit as well.
On the city’s northeast side incumbent Scott Benson faces a challenge from a life-long resident of Council District 3, Cranstana Anderson. Anderson says she wants to change how city government operates on the eastside.
Former council member is challenging two incumbents who beat her in 2021. She’s confident voters will give her another chance.
Incumbent Scott Benson is running for reelection to represent northeast Detroit. He says Council District 3 faces a flood of problems, including dealing with actual and sometimes massive flooding.
The post Councilman Scott Benson says he wants more time in office to bring jobs, better infrastructure to northeast Detroit appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
William “Bill” Noakes, a longtime public defender and professor, announced Tuesday he is running for Michigan attorney general, positioning himself as the only Democrat in the race who has never been a prosecutor and could become the first Black person to hold the office. Noakes, who has practiced law since 1982, is the fourth Democrat […]
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Records show Triumph Church bought the house in 2013 and later sold it to its pastor, raising legal questions about the transaction.
The post Megachurch’s role in Rev. Kinloch’s $1.3M suburban home draws scrutiny amid Detroit mayoral race appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
Political violence should never be tolerated. In America, we need to settle our differences at the ballot box, through civic action, not violence. As a father, I lost my wife to mental illness when my sons were 4 and 8. I can empathize with the family of Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist who was […]
The post U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar: Why I can’t call Charlie Kirk a hero appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
House Republicans forced Democrats into an awkward vote Friday by pushing through a resolution that hailed conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk as a champion of “unity” and “respectful, civil discourse,” despite his record of racist, misogynistic, and homophobic rhetoric. The measure passed 310-58 with support from nearly 100 Democrats. It condemns political violence and eulogizes Kirk, […]
The post Only 2 Michigan Democrats vote against legislation calling Charlie Kirk a hero appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
Michigan Republicans have long branded themselves as defenders of free expression. But their recent actions in Lansing tell a different story.
The post Michigan Republicans claim to defend free speech while pushing bills to silence it appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
The field for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate being vacated by Gary Peters is already crowded.
Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow jumped in right away.
Abdul El-Sayed’s entry into the fray is not a surprise. An epidemiologist by trade, he served as health director for the City of Detroit – then ran for governor in 2018. He finished second in the primary to Gretchen Whitmer. El-Sayed picked up the most votes in Detroit.
El-Sayed returned to the world of public health and directed Wayne County’s health department. He resigned from that position in April to run for U.S. Senate.
In a conversation with Detroit Public Radio’s Russ McNamara, El-Sayed laid out his platform.
Listen: ‘I’ve been Abdul my whole life’: El-Sayed talks run for U.S. Senate
“I want money out of politics, money back in your pocket, and Medicare for All,” El-Sayed said.
In short, there’s a brewing class war and politicians have made it too easy for people to become billionaires at the expense of the working class.
“The fundamental corruption of our politics has been the system that allows corporations and would be oligarchs and billionaires to buy politicians, who then rig the system so that corporations can charge you more for the things that you have to buy from them, and pay you less for the work that you have to do for them,” El-Sayed said.
El-Sayed says that means—much like his run for governor in 2018—that he isn’t taking money from corporations.
And despite his progressive credentials, El-Sayed claims he sees political challenges in a different framework.
“I don’t believe in left and right,” El-Sayed says. “I instead believe, ‘are you part of the system locking people out, or are you working for the people who want to unlock the system?’ For them, I’m focused on unlocking the system.”
“If you’re willing to have an honest conversation, if you’re willing to be truthful and direct and specific about what you want to do, people are willing to listen.”
El-Sayed says he understands that there are some people who won’t vote for him because he is Muslim.
“You get pretty good at explaining yourself, and I’ve learned that when people get past the name, they’re a lot more interested in what you have to say,” El-Sayed said.
He says he’s not about the change who he is, or his message.
“I’m the guy named Abdul who stood up and took on corporate polluters. I’m the guy named Abdul that helped to rewrite the state’s lead laws after Flint, when we had every school, daycare and head start in Detroit tested for lead in the water. I’m the guy named Abdul who put glasses on tens of thousands of kids faces,” El-Sayed said.
One of the recurring threads to last year’s presidential election was the Biden Administration’s indifference to Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza. Vice President Kamala Harris largely refused to engage with Palestinians, and pro-Palestinian activists. At the Democratic National Convention, organizers refused to let a Palestinian speak.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
“I want our tax dollars to stop killing children,” El-Sayed said. “You don’t have to be a human rights expert to see the deaths of 18,500 kids, the attempt to render their homes unlivable, to destroy their parents lives and livelihoods and to ship them off into another place because they happen to speak the same language, and call that what it’s called.”
Polling has shown that people who identify as Democrats are largely against sending more bombs to Israel—something that is not reflected in party leadership.
“The fact that our party was on the wrong side of that obvious truth for a very long time is itself an indictment,” El-Sayed said.
El-Sayed says he has had many discussions about difficult subjects at campaign stops across the state.
“If you’re willing to have an honest conversation, if you’re willing to be truthful and direct and specific about what you want to do, people are willing to listen.”
The post ‘I’ve been Abdul my whole life’: El-Sayed talks run for U.S. Senate appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
As Detroiters prepare to elect a new mayor in November, a new survey from the University of Michigan highlights the top challenges residents want city leaders to address and what they believe would make a difference. Safety and crime topped the list, with nearly 18% of Detroiters saying it’s among their household’s three biggest problems, […]
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CEO pay is out of control, with the possibility of Tesla executive Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Meanwhile, prospects for average workers have dimmed with decades of stagnated wages and a majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont […]
The post Rashida Tlaib and Bernie Sanders introduce the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
Former Detroit mayoral candidate Saunteel Jenkins is endorsing Mary Sheffield for the job.
She expressed her support for Sheffield this morning during an event at Cody High School on the city’s west side, saying they have shared priorities.
“It’s about kids all over the city of Detroit who deserve to live in a city free of gun violence. It’s about all the kids who deserve to grow and reach their full potential.”
Jenkins has an understanding of City Council president Sheffield’s qualifications to become mayor. Jenkins served as the president of Detroit City Council before stepping down in 2014.
Sheffield faces Pastor Solomon Kinloch in the November 4th general election.
Detroit Democrat Adam Hollier has announced that he’s running to become Michigan’s next Secretary of State.
Current Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is term-limited. She’s running for governor in 2026 instead.
Hollier served two terms in the Michigan State Senate and later served as Director of Michigan’s Veterans Affairs Agency. He had two unsuccessful runs for Congress in 2022 and 2024, with last year’s run scuttled by problems with petition signatures.
Hollier had originally announced plans to run again next year in the 13th Congressional District, but has now changed course.
Detroit’s three casinos brought in 106.9 million dollars in revenue last month. That’s down 4.6 percent from August 2024.
MGM Grand continues to hold the largest share of the city’s casino market at 48 percent. Motor City had 29 percent. And Hollywood Casino at Greektown captured 21 percent of the market. Together, the three casinos paid 12.6 million dollars in taxes and wagering agreement payments to the City of Detroit last month. They paid another 8.6 million dollars in taxes to the State of Michigan.
U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin is scheduled to speak at Wayne State University’s Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy this weekend to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Slotkin will deliver the keynote address. The event takes place on Saturday.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is recovering from prostate cancer surgery. He underwent a procedure on Tuesday to deal with the problem.
In a statement on YouTube, Dilkens urges men to talk to their doctors about prostate health.
“I’m grateful for the early detection and I look forward to making a full and complete recovery. Now let’s face it. Men of a certain age can be stubborn when it comes to their health care needs – and even more so when it comes to talking about prostate issues. Had it not been for my family history and my family doctor’s great advice, I would never have even known that I had cancer.”
Dilkens says he has been monitoring his prostate health in the past few years because of his family history. A biopsy this summer confirmed he had prostate cancer.
Dilkens has served as Windsor’s mayor since 2014.
If there’s something in your neighborhood you think we should know about, drop us a line at DetroitEveningReport@wdet.org. You know how much we love hearing about Detroit.
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Detroit mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch’s megachurch owes nearly $30,000 in delinquent water bills in Detroit, raising questions about whether voters should trust him to manage a city with a $3 billion budget, according to public records. Kinloch, 52, is the senior pastor of Triumph Church, a Detroit-based megachurch with more than 40,000 members and seven […]
The post Mayoral candidate Kinloch’s megachurch owes Detroit nearly $30K in delinquent water bills appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
A federal judge on Monday upheld Hamtramck’s ban on flying Pride flags on city property, dismissing a lawsuit that argued the restriction was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson said the city’s flagpoles are reserved for government speech, not a public forum for residents. In his 12-page opinion, Lawson ruled against Hamtramck Human Relations Commission […]
The post Federal judge upholds Hamtramck’s Pride flag ban, dismisses lawsuit appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is visiting Renaissance High School in Detroit on Monday, raising alarms among teachers who say the Trump administration’s education agenda threatens the future of public schools. McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment executive whom President Donald Trump tasked with dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, is on a 50-state […]
The post Trump administration’s war on public schools comes to Detroit with unpublicized education chief visit appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
As both a labor leader and longtime teacher in Michigan, I’ve seen firsthand the struggle our students, families, and educators face when politics gets in the way of progress. This moment is one of the most dangerous I’ve witnessed. As students head back to the classroom this fall, teachers and staff are preparing to give […]
The post Opinion: Michigan’s students can’t wait while Republicans play games with our schools appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
Corporate greed drives up costs. Recently, corporations have begun using technology to raise prices in new ways and without your knowledge. Why should big grocery store chains be allowed to use facial recognition technology, digital price tags, and our personal information to price gouge? Our families are already struggling to cover the costs of groceries. […]
The post Opinion: Stop price gouging in grocery stores appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
A Wayne County judge on Wednesday ordered the Detroit City Clerk’s Office to follow election transparency laws after a lawsuit alleged officials began processing and tabulating absentee ballots early without public notice. Robert Davis, a citizen watchdog, filed the emergency lawsuit against the clerk’s office on Monday, alleging the city began processing and tabulating absentee […]
The post Judge orders Detroit clerk to follow election transparency laws following watchdog lawsuit appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
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