A new round of billboards in Lansing and Detroit is calling on Michigan lawmakers to outlaw painful dog experiments at Wayne State University and pass legislation known as Queenie’s Law. The campaign, funded by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, includes five billboards near the state capital and one on I-75 in Detroit.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow — a rising Democratic star known for her viral rebuttal of right-wing attacks and sharp criticism of President Donald Trump — is running for U.S. Senate in 2026, hoping to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters. In a two-and-a-half-minute campaign announcement video released Wednesday, McMorrow cast herself as part of a new generation of Democrats ready to push back against the influence of Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, while criticizing the Democratic establishment for failing to meet the urgency of the moment.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines (and give your bosses an early heads up that you’ll be sick on Friday). The Tigers kickstart their 25th baseball season at Comerica Park against the White Sox, and the city kicks off one of its biggest parties of the year. While we can quibble about whether there is such a thing as a moral victory, let alone one to be found in a series sweep, the Tigers played the Dodgers tough, and were a controversial review and reversal away from a ninth inning go-ahead run on Friday night.

The father of a 3-year-old boy whose body was found in a freezer in Detroit is suing 13 Michigan child welfare employees, accusing them of repeatedly ignoring clear signs of abuse that led to the child’s death. The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division, alleges that workers in the state’s Child Protective Services division failed to protect Chayce Allen, despite documented injuries that included broken lips, burns, and trauma that left him permanently blind.

Michigan stands to lose more than $400 million in economic activity and $72 million in tax revenue over the next decade if federal refugee resettlements remain on hold, according to a new report. The study, produced by Global Detroit and Businesses and People for Immigration in partnership with Public Policy Associates, warns of lasting economic damage after the Trump administration indefinitely suspended refugee settlements starting in January.

A jarring, ear-splitting emergency alert that startled many metro Detroit residents awake at 6 a.m. Monday was mistakenly sent to cell phones across the region, the Detroit Fire Department acknowledged.

The bumper stickers and the yard signs practically write themselves: “McMorrow for Tomorrow,” they might say, or maybe even “from Whitehouse to the White House.” But let’s not get ahead of ourselves regarding Mallory McMorrow, a blunt-speaking (and relatively young) Democratic state senator from Royal Oak who just might be Michigan’s version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or maybe even Barack Obama. Raised in Whitehouse, New Jersey, and educated at Notre Dame, McMorrow is serving her second, four-year term in the state Senate at age 38.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib wants to give rent money to young adults and youth experiencing homelessness. The Detroit Congresswoman has reintroduced her Youth Homelessness Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act, which calls for direct cash payments to adults under 30 and emancipated minors experiencing homelessness.

A Detroit cop was charged Thursday with stealing sneakers from fellow officers. James Clark Davis III, 27, is accused of taking multiple pairs of athletic shoes from a shared locker room at the Detroit Police Department Downtown Services location on the 20 block of Atwater Street.

Last year, no one from the Detroit Tigers organization ever seemed particularly surprised by the team’s remarkable — and improbable — late-season winning streak that led to their first MLB playoff appearance since 2014. For those of you who need a recap: On August 10, 2024, the Tigers were eight games under .500 (55-63), their season seemingly drawing to another unremarkable finish. The team had even sold off starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, catcher Carson Kelly, and left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin at the MLB trading deadline.

You don’t have to be an expert to know that the way we’ve chosen to do housing in this country is horribly dysfunctional. Rents are too high, supply is too low, banks and credit agencies are still discriminatory dinosaurs, and neighborhood segregation is still rampant. On top of all that, Detroiters were recently reminded that the status quo is also deadly.

A former Highland Park cop was charged Wednesday with three felonies in connection with a 2020 assault of a 36-year-old man outside a Burger King on Woodward Avenue. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Wednesday announced charges against Dammeon Lamark Player, 51, who was working as a Highland Park officer when the incident occurred.

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. In a rare move, six tribal nations in Michigan have withdrawn from discussions on a federal permit for the Line 5 tunnel, which the Canadian company Enbridge wants to build under the Straits of Mackinac. Line 5 carries oil and natural gas liquids across the Straits of Mackinac.

In an email to the University of Michigan (U-M) Faculty Senate, Faculty Senate Chair and Professor at Stamps School of Art Rebekah Modrak alleges that academic deans at U-M schools were recently requested “to create lists of employees who work in DEI-related positions and to estimate what percentage of their work fell into one of four categories.” Deans were apparently given 48 hours to complete the lists, which were due Feb. 14. The due date indicates that the request for lists of employees in roles related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was issued prior to President Donald Trump’s own Feb. 14 memo, which warned U.S. schools they could lose federal funding for failing to eliminate diversity initiatives. The request for lists of employees appears to have originated with the U-M Board of Regents, which did not respond to requests for comment on this article.

Wayne State University prevented a group of peaceful pro-Palestinian activists, including students and professors, from gathering at a campus site, the latest example of the college cracking down on opponents of Israel’s relentless killings in the Middle East. Organizers were surprised when campus police told them on Friday they were not allowed to hold their vigil and pop-up clinic in front of the Mazurek Medical Education Commons on East Canfield, less than two months after they got permission for their biweekly gatherings.

The TV showed President Donald Trump on the White House lawn with his unelected Deputy President Elon Musk. They were showing off electric vehicles made by Tesla, a Musk car company currently under much criticism. Trump himself bought one, although he often rants against “electric vehicle mandates” and generally rides in the back of a chauffeured limousine.

The Pelicans might not have anything to play for, having already been eliminated from playoff contention, unable to overcome another injury-plagued season that saw Zion Williamson miss most of November and all of December to a hamstring strain. But make no mistake — Williamson is healthy now and playing some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 25/7/6 splits since the start of February and displaying the speed and explosiveness that made him such a tantalizing prospect coming out of Duke, and makes this game more than worth the price of admission. The home stretch of the regular season sees the Pistons’ schedule get hellishly difficult, making the task of containing Williamson all the more important.

For the past two weeks, demonstrators have gathered outside Troy’s Somerset Collection holding handmade signs with slogans like “DETROIT VS MUSK,” “STOP FUNDING A FASCIST,” and “NO KINGS! NO NAZIS!” The demonstrations support an international “Tesla Takedown” movement against billionaire Elon Musk and his meddling in politics.

A Detroit police lieutenant who was suspended last year for making inappropriate remarks at a pro-Palestinian protest has quietly returned to duty, drawing condemnation from a police accountability coalition. Lt. Brandon Cole — who was removed from active duty in May 2024 after telling a protester to “go back to Mexico” — was reinstated in November and assigned to the Firearms Inventory Unit, with 60 days back pay, DPD confirmed to Metro Times on Thursday. The Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability (CPTA) denounced his return, calling it a failure of accountability.