Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield issued an executive order today that maps out guidelines for city departments to prioritize protecting residents and workers during the heatwave. 

The executive order instructs the water department not to shut off water service unless directed by the customer or to fix a broken main. The Building Safety, Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED) must expedite all temperature-related requests at all cooling centers. Other departments are also ordered to prioritize protecting seniors and the unhoused or those living in unsafe conditions. 

Additional headlines for Thursday, July 2, 2026

Dearborn police on the lookout for illegal fireworks, curfew in place

Dearborn Police Department announced that there will be a zero-tolerance policy in place for using fireworks illegally.  Residents are allowed to use fireworks on their own properties through fifth of July and before 11:45 p.m. but no debris can land outside of property lines.  

Police Chief Issa Shahin says those caught breaking the law could be fined up to $500. “This isn’t about punishment, it’s about prevention, and I want everyone to enjoy and celebrate this holiday season, but to be able to do it safely.” 

A curfew is also in place for minors ages 17 and younger unless accompanied by an adult on July 3 and 4 from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m.   Chief Shahin says there have been no tips of a teen takeover happening this holiday, but the police department will be prepared. 

Wayne County disease outbreak

The Wayne County health department says it’s investigating 17 suspected cases of cyclosporiasis. 

It’s a gastrointestinal disease caused by parasites. The most common symptom is severe diarrhea. And people usually get it by eating food contaminated with feces. 

Wayne State’s Dr. Teena Chopra says patients can start to feel better, but that doesn’t mean the infection is gone. 

“This particular parasite, if it is not treated, it can continue to infect new intestinal cells, and that’s why there can be ongoing relapsing diarrhea, so it’s important to seek treatment.”

She says antibiotics work well, but the disease can damage the small intestine of it’s not treated. The state health department has confirmed more than 170 cases of cyclosporiasis in southeast Michigan since June 22 but has not found the source of the outbreak.   

AAPAC endorses ending SMART opt-out

The Arab American Political Action Committee has endorsed the Wayne County Public Transportation Millage, a ballot proposal that would end opt-out of SMART’s bus system in Wayne County.

Committee officials say the millage would connect Detroit residents to more jobs and schools in the suburbs.

AAPAC president Osama Siblani said in a statement, “Too many residents face barriers to employment, education and essential services simply because transportation options are limited. Wayne County Transit for All represents an investment in people – creating stronger connections between neighborhoods workplaces and community resources.” 

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Transportation Riders United (TRU) is forming a statewide coalition to advocate for better transit options throughout Michigan called Move MI.

The Detroit-based group toured the state on their Around the Mitten Transit Tour, visiting and riding public transit in 16 cities.

TRU Executive Director Megan Owens spoke with WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley about the tour and the issues other transit systems face.

The following interview was edited for time and clarity.

Executive Director Megan Owens: TRU has worked for 25 years now in the metro Detroit area. And we know a lot about the benefits and the challenges of public transportation in metro Detroit. But we know that there’s another 70+ transit agencies around the state of Michigan, and that there are millions of people who depend on transit. So, we wanted to get a better understanding of the strengths and challenges of public transit all across the state of Michigan.

We traveled for 14 days over 1,800 miles, went all the way up to Port Huron, Alpena, Marquette, Traverse City, Benton Harbor—all over the state, 16 different cities, all to learn how public transit works, and where there are gaps, and where it needs improvement. And to think about how the state, the next governor, and other state leaders can be better supporting opportunities for Michiganders who don’t drive or don’t want to drive to still be able to get around and visit friends, family, and all of Michigan’s beautiful locations.

Bre’Anna Tinsley, WDET: So, after seeing all of those different transportation organizations, is there some trend, maybe, that you’ve discovered across the state that’s happening among our transit systems?

MO: There were a couple of things we learned. One that I don’t think a lot of people realize is that you can, in fact, take public transportation across the state of Michigan. It’s not always as convenient or easy as it should be, but we were able to visit 16 different cities using Amtrak, using regional busses, using inner city busses, and could visit all sorts of great places. So one, it was exciting to know that you can do all of these things, but we also learned that the service is way too limited, whether you’re talking about traveling between cities or traveling within any different metropolitan area. There are options to get around, but they’re not nearly as frequent, as reliable, they don’t go as many places as many people want to go.  

So while there are transit agencies that are working extremely hard to provide the very best service that they can, they’re all limited by funding and are really torn to try to provide the very best they can with extremely limited resources.

BT: The reason for the limited resources, did you discover if that was something that’s happening at the state level, or do all of these communities have their own individual limitations?

MO: One of the reasons we did want to explore all of these different areas is that the state does fund an important component of transit in every single community. There’s something called the “local bus operating budget item” (LBO) that we’ve been fighting for years to get the state to increase to make sure that Smart and DDOT have the resources they need. But it funds every one of the 77 transit agencies across the state. At one point in time, the LBO, as it’s called, covered half the costs of running local transit service, so the state covered half the costs, and the local communities came up with half the costs.

But, as costs have gone up and the state budget allocation has not. It’s cover and the state funds are covering barely a third of the of what it costs to run local transit services across the state. And right now it’s one of those things that’s debated in the state budget every year. How much is going to go into this local bus type operating? So, we did make sure one of our last stops was at the state capitol to make sure legislators knew just how important this local bus operating budget is.

Just about every legislator and most of the people they deal with every day are people who drive, and a lot of us are used to driving everywhere. But we wanted to remind legislators that every community has thousands of people who don’t drive, whether that’s seniors, whether that’s students, whether that’s somebody who is saving up for their first car, whether that’s a person with a disability, whether they’re in a wheelchair or have epilepsy or have a developmental disability. There are thousands of people all around us who don’t drive, who deserve to have just as full and robust lives as everyone else. They should be able to see the Great Lakes, they should be able to visit, so many of these wonderful places that we have in our state, even if they don’t drive.

BT: So, are there any takeaways from this trip that you think maybe we can implement here that might help improve the systems?

MO: We learned some great things about the different transit agencies around the state and what they are doing. Flint has been working with a lot of alternative fuels. DDOT and  Smart have tested out electric buses that have had mixed success. But Flint is working with compressed national natural gas and with hydrogen, and so even as diesel prices shoot up, several of the systems, like Flint and Port Huron, have not had to deal with those skyrocketing costs. So, exploring different types of fuels for the buses.

There are a number of the systems around the around the state, you can just use any old credit card and tap as you enter the bus, and use that as a way to pay. So that’s something I know that our local agencies are looking into, but it was neat to see just how quick and easy it was. You didn’t need any special app, you didn’t need any official pass…if you got a credit card, you tap it, and you enter. So, I think that’s something that could make it again even easier to ride transit in our areas as well.