Dearborn’s Department of Public Health has been awarded a $101,000 grant to advance firearm safety. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services funding supports collaborative efforts to educate gun owners on safe handling and storage. 

Dearborn Mayor Abdulllah Hammoud says firearm injury prevention is a public health and safety priority. 

The city’s health department will distribute firearm safety kits, including gun locks, lockboxes, and educational materials.  Dearborn Chief Public Health Officer Ali Abazeed says the grant supports evidence-based education and access to safety tools. 

Additional headlines for Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

Michigan Chief Medical Executive makes Standing Recommendation regarding children’s vaccines 

Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, made a Standing Recommendation to continue issuing vaccinations on schedule based on recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). 

Bagdasarian shared that public health experts are not in agreement with new federal vaccine recommendations, prompting the announcement. One of the recent changes was dropping the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth and removing the COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women. 

Bagdasarian’s Standing Recommendation was made with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Immunization. 

She says the recommendation does not supersede clinical judgment. She also asks health care providers to make vaccines accessible by removing barriers for patients. 

Bagdasarian says vaccines keep people safe and potentially save lives. 

EGLE renews license for hazardous waste facility 

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has renewed the license for a hazardous waste treatment and storage facility in Detroit for the next 10 years.

Hazardous Waste Management Facility Operating License to EQ Detroit Inc., which does business as US Ecology Detroit South, was issued the license after regulatory review and a public comment process. Several people strongly opposed the facility because it emits strong odors leading to health concerns like asthma. The facility also has a history of clean air violations. 

EGLE renewed the license, adding new requirements, such as expanding air and groundwater monitoring. The facility must replace six tanks beginning in January 2026 and install odor control equipment by the end of Dec 2027.

Tunnel in southwest Detroit 

The Great Lakes Water Authority has started building a sewage relief system near the Rouge River in Southwest Detroit. Crews will spend at least two years digging a tunnel to carry excess stormwater to an underused retention and treatment center. Chief Operating Officer Navid Mehram says the $87 million project should reduce the risk of flooding and sewage backups during heavy rain. 

“So this is an example where we’re making an investment in our existing system by rerouting some flows, so that we can leverage an existing facility that wasn’t receiving all the flow it can treat.”

Mehram says the project will not increase customers’ sewage bills. He says state and federal funding will help pay for the tunnel. 

New tech firm in town 

Detroit is getting a new high-tech security and AI solution firm, Eccalon. The defense tech company will create 800 new jobs ranging from $25-100 per hour. 

The facility will have manufacturing operations, training programs and an innovation center. 

The company’s headquarters is moving from Maryland to become a part of the tech innovation in Detroit. Eccalon will be located at the Bedrock-owned Icon building at 200 Walker Street. 

Eccalon Chairman and CEO André Gudger says the new headquarters will develop cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing and automation. 

The company hopes to open early next year. 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Detroit Outdoors has taken a group of students and teachers to Yosemite National Park for the second time.

The Detroit to Gloryland journey is designed to introduce youth to outdoor activities like camping and rock climbing and pick up on some history.

The group travels to Yosemite in late July so they are in there during National Buffalo Soldier Day, and within reach of the park system’s expert on the history of Buffalo Soldiers in the park.

Shelton Johnson is a native Detroiter, an alum of Cass Technical High School and a park ranger. He has worked to collect the narratives of the Black and other non-white soldiers who served as Yosemite’s first rangers and share their individual and collective stories.

WDET’s Sascha Raiyn got to travel with the students both years. You can hear stories from the first Detroit to Gloryland trip and learn more about Shelton Johnson in 2024 here.

‘Gloryland’ veterans speak

It was Cass Tech High School Junior Tiffany Orr’s first-time camping and first-time in Yosemite. She interviewed the three students who came on the trip for a second time: Jaiden Nedd, Cameron Thomas and Arcia Quinn.

Expressing Yosemite: a poet’s guide to being in nature

Poet and author Jacqueline Suskind traveled with the students. Suskind’s work focuses on her relationship to nature – and on teaching others to explore their own relationships to nature — through writing.

Students had an inside guide to Yosemite this year

Robel Fessehatzion is a landscape photographer who works at and with Yosemite National Park.

He met the students who traveled from Detroit to Yosemite on the 2024 trip.

This year, Fessehatzion introduced the students to the people, places and history that shape his relationship to Yosemite.

He also gave them a little lesson in landscape photography.

A look at how Detroit Outdoors gets it done

Moving more than 20 people across the country to camp — many for the first time — is a big undertaking. We take a look at the logisitcs of the trip.

‘Gloryland’ first-timers speak

Sascha Raiyn gave her recorder to Pershing student Eva Effinger and Hamtramck High grad Nora Algahaim. They interviewed each other — on the one night the campers had very loud neighbors. They talked about their first camping experience and starting the trip not feeling so well.

To learn more and see photos of the experience, check out the Detroit Outdoors Instagram account.