Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson carries an early lead in the 2026 gubernatorial race, comfortably ahead of Republican U.S. Rep. John James and independent candidate Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, according to a new poll by Target Insyght for MIRS News. If the general election were held today, the poll found 42% of the 600 respondents said they would vote for Benson, a Democrat, in a hypothetical matchup.

When Princess Honeycutt moved into her apartment last April, she thought it’d be a fresh start. After experiencing homelessness and moving in with several of her nine children, Honeycutt, 59, yearned for a place of her own. Her options are limited, because her only source of income is the disability benefits she receives following a hip replacement, but with the help of Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency she moved into an apartment at the corner of Marx Street and State Fair Avenue.

Surreal times for Pistons fans. Just last season, the Wizards were the Pistons’ cellmate in the NBA penitentiary of awful teams. The Pistons lost a record-tying 28 games in a row, while the Wizards countered with two separate 16 game skids.

To open its national newscast — The National — last Thursday, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showed video of big trucks crossing the Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan, United States of America with Windsor, Ontario, Canada. With automotive parts constantly crisscrossing borders during vehicle production, it is a major chokepoint in President Donald Trump’s trade war of tariffs against Canada and other nations. All sides might suffer, Trump reckons, but he will show everyone who’s boss.

Michigan is still “feeling the Bern.” On Saturday, some 10,000 people came to Lincoln High School in Warren to listen to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders — a figure that seemed to surprise even his own team.

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. To get to the Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City, you take a road called “Fly Don’t Drive.” (Get it?) The airport isn’t crowded on a mid-November morning; the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired lobby with its fireplace and warm lighting has a few people milling around — none of the hubbub of big terminals.

Denzel McCampbell, a longtime advocate and public servant, has launched his campaign for Detroit City Council — pledging to fight for affordable housing, better public transportation, and greater government transparency.  “I am proud to announce my campaign to become the next city council person for Detroit’s District 7,” McCampbell said in a statement Thursday.

The Red Wings look to right the ship against a feisty Utah Hockey Club. Coyotes no more, this marks the first time the Red Wings have hosted Utah since their move from Arizona. The move, along with the development of former high draft picks Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther and really solid goaltending from Karel Vejmelka, has breathed some life into the franchise that was a perennial bottom feeder for a decade.

Mark Craighead spent more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, after his exoneration in 2022, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office is targeting the nonprofit he founded to help others rebuild their lives after incarceration. Craighead, 65, is the president and director of Safe Place Transition Center, a Detroit-based nonprofit that provides housing assistance to formerly incarcerated residents and veterans.

President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night was a fascist speech. He spent much of the record-setting address — at one hour and 40 minutes, the longest ever delivered to Congress — sneering at and denigrating Democrats, spouting a firehose blast of falsehoods, threatening to annex allied nations like Greenland “one way or another,” calling for the death penalty to anyone who kills a cop, promising to round up “illegal” immigrants, and continuing to roll out the red carpet for his oligarch friend Elon Musk to take over the U.S. government. But much of the address was also centered on the ongoing moral panic against transgender people — statements that were reportedly not included in excerpts shared with the press ahead of time.

The United Auto Workers union is throwing its support behind President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs, saying they are a necessary tool to reverse decades of what it calls “anti-worker trade deals.” But the endorsement comes as industry leaders and economists warn that tariffs could deal a serious blow to the American auto sector, driving up car prices, disrupting supply chains, and threatening thousands of jobs.

A 37-year-old Detroit cop was charged Wednesday with a felony count of accosting a child for immoral purposes after authorities allege he sent inappropriate text messages to a 12-year-old girl in Warren. Earl Raynard Anderson, Jr. faces up to four years in prison. On Wednesday morning, Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison suspended Anderson and plans to urge the elected police commission to strip him of his salary.

Graduate student employees at Wayne State University have begun negotiations for a new labor contract, seeking better pay and improved working conditions amid rising living costs and concerns over campus facilities. The Graduate Employees Organizing Committee (GEOC) — which represents more than 400 PhD and master’s degree students working as teaching and research assistants — is pushing for significant wage increases, employment protections, and improved maintenance of deteriorating labs and officers.

NEW YORK — As you leave Anne Frank’s hiding place near the end of this immersive tour, you step into a room with a raised glass floor illuminated beneath your feet. It shows the map of Europe in World War II. Little flags mark sites of concentration camps and other places where Jews were massacred.

Federal employees, labor unions, and two Democratic congresswomen rallied outside the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit on Friday, demanding the Trump administration keep its hands off veteran services.  More than 100 people marched on a sidewalk outside the VA, holding signs that read, “Save the VA,” “Stop the war on America’s workforce,” and “Dump Trump.” They chanted, “This is what democracy looks like” and “Save civil service.”

While the Democratic Party seems to be at a loss as to how to respond to President Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk’s rapid (and possibly unconstitutional) dismantling of the federal government, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is calling it like he sees it. The Vermont independent has hit the road for a national “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour, rallying against what his office calls “the takeover of the national government by billionaires and large corporations, and the country’s move toward authoritarianism.”

Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters is taking a unique approach to preventing more children from being shot by unsecured guns in the city. Waters, a former teacher, is going to schools to provide gun locks to children who sign pledge cards promising to deliver the locks to households with unsecured firearms.

A former Detroit pension system employee has been charged with embezzling at least $460,000 in retirement funds. Evette Byrd, 52, was arraigned in Wayne County Circuit Court on one count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more and one count of using a computer to commit a crime, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.

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, BPR, a public radio station serving western North Carolina, WBEZ, a public radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan region, and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan.