Oakland County leaders and residents are protesting a possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative office in Southfield. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and State Senator Jeremy Moss were among dozens of protesters at the site Tuesday.  State Representative Jason Hoskins says residents are concerned about ICE having a larger presence in Southfield. 

 “Across the country, people have seen mass federal agents operating in ways that feel aggressive and intimidating and disconnected from the communities that they serve, and when communities of color see mass individuals exercising power, it says a historical weight that cannot be ignored.”   

The building owner, REDICO, said in a statement that the lease is with the General Services Administration, and not directly with ICE. 

Additional Headlines for February 18, 2026

 DTE Energy fined for clean air violations 

A federal judge has ordered DTE Energy to pay 100 million dollars for Clean Air Act violations in Metro Detroit. The infractions occurred at a subsidiary facility on Zug Island where coal is turned into coke for steel production. Sulfur dioxide is produced during the process. The gas can cause health problems when inhaled. The Environmental Protection Agency sued the coke plant in 2022. The judge also ordered the facility to come into compliance with clean air laws and to start a Community Quality Action Committee to work on air quality improvement projects. DTE Energy says it will appeal the ruling.  

Cardiac emergency plans for school stalls 

Michigan lawmakers required schools to adopt a cardiac emergency response plan for the current school year if the Legislature appropriated “sufficient funds.” But funding wasn’t dedicated in the education budget. A Senate proposal to include funding was removed by the House and was not included in the final budget. That means enforcement of the law is stalled. Bridge Michigan reports the state Department of Education says decisions on whether to implement emergency plans at the state’s estimated 5,000 public and nonpublic schools depend on local capacity and available resources. 

The holy month of Ramadan has begun 

Ramadan has begun. The Islamic holy month began Tuesday after sunset. Today is the first day of fasting. Muslim communities observe the event by praying intently, reading the Quran, giving to charity, and fasting from sunrise to sunset. Families gather in the evening to break their fast. Ramadan is the month when it is believed that the Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. 

Ash Wednesday observed 

Today is Ash Wednesday, a solemn day of fasting and reflection that signals the start of Lent, the season of repentance, reflection and self-denial for Catholics and many other Christians. Worshippers attend church today and receive ashes, commonly spread in the shape of a cross on the forehead to remind them that life is short and that they should focus on things of the spirit. 

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In 2023, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed one of the most aggressive clean energy laws in the country — requiring Michigan utilities to hit 50% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% clean electricity by 2040. That plan assumed federal policy would be moving in the same direction. Things like federal tax credits, Environmental Protection Agency regulations, and infrastructure money for electric vehicles were anticipated to follow.

But that’s not what’s happening now. Last week, the Trump administration revoked the EPA’s ability to regulate pollution.

What does that decision mean for Michigan? What does it mean for DTE and Consumers Energy, which are both tasked with transitioning to clean energy sources instead of relying on things like natural gas?

Liesl Clark is the director of climate action engagement for the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. She also used to run the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. 

The Metro‘s Sam Corey spoke with the director about the president’s actions and what she would recommend the state do now.

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More stories from The Metro

If you live in southeast Michigan, chances are you have a DTE story — the kind where your food spoiled during an outage, your pipes froze while you waited for power, or the number on your energy bill last month spurred disbelief.

The data backs up that frustration. According to a report from the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, the state ranked last in 2023 for average time to restore power after an outage, taking roughly 12 hours per incident —more than double that of any neighboring state.

Energy rates, meanwhile, continue to climb. DTE Energy has filed four rate increase requests with the Michigan Public Service Commission in five years. In 2024, the company cut power to approximately 150,000 customers for nonpayment, according to a report from the Center for Biological Diversity. That same year, DTE paid more than $607 million in dividends to shareholders while its profits surged 41%.

Now, a grassroots effort in Ann Arbor is trying to change the equation.

The group Ann Arbor for Public Power has launched a petition drive to put a question on the November 2026 ballot: whether to establish a governing board for a future city-owned electric utility. The group needs approximately 6,500 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

What happens next

If approved by voters, the measure would not immediately purchase DTE’s infrastructure. Instead, it would create a nine-member public utility board to lay the groundwork for an eventual transition away from the investor-owned utility. A separate vote would be required in the future to authorize the actual acquisition of DTE’s poles and wires.

Michigan already has roughly 40 municipal utilities in cities like Lansing, Traverse City, Holland, and Wyandotte. But none of them were formed by acquiring infrastructure from a private utility. Ann Arbor would be the first city in the state to attempt it. Organizers believe success there could open the door for other Michigan cities, including Detroit, to follow.

Sean Higgins, president of Ann Arbor for Public Power, joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss why his group believes public ownership is the path to cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable energy for Ann Arbor residents.

DTE Energy has not responded to WDET’s request for comment about this effort.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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How does a global community provide for the needs of its citizens without destroying the planet? That’s the crux of “Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth,” a new book out this month.

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, society shut down for a few months. As humans stayed inside, animals returned to their old habitats and pollution eased as industry slowed.

Retired researcher—and new metro Detroit resident—Stan Cox looks at how that “anthropause” could be a preview of the necessary societal changes to save lives and the planet.

He spoke with All Things Considered – Detroit host Russ McNamara last month. Click on the media player to listen or read selected transcripts below.

Russ McNamara, WDET: Why did you write this book?

Stan Cox, Author: The main point I’m making in the book is imagining that we as a society, if we were to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and get by just on the energy that could be generated other ways; and if we stopped plundering the earth for minerals and cutting down forest and causing ecological damage; and we had less energy and materials, and had to allocate them carefully: people know that’s going to mean sacrifice. What am I going to have to give up and so forth?

And what I’m saying in the book is okay, yeah, there are certain things, obviously that will have to be given up. But let’s consider all of the dangers and nuisances, terrible stuff that we put up with an advanced industrial society that has all this energy and materials running through it.

We would be saying goodbye to a lot of those harms and ills by simply not doing a lot of the stuff that requires so much energy input. So the rest of the book, then, is going through specific technologies and activities and so forth that are really harmful to people and the environment, of course, that we would not have the fuel to undertake them, or we would be using resources for meeting people’s basic needs, and we wouldn’t be spending a lot of energy on these other things.

RM: You discuss this and I’m reminded of data centers to run artificial intelligence. People certainly don’t seem to want them and definitely don’t want these in their backyard because there is this concern about the high cost of electricity, and the amount of groundwater that is needed.

SC: That’s absolutely right. One of the big reasons these communities don’t want them is that they create this horrific noise at very high decibel levels and low low frequency noise, which is especially dangerous to human health. When I started writing the book, there wasn’t as much being said about A.I. and the data centers at that time, so I did eventually incorporated them, but the beginning of the second chapter is about noise pollution and and I just used it. It’s seemingly a very small thing, but it really brings out other issues. The leaf blower, especially the gas powered leaf blower, also produces this low frequency and very high volume sound—about eight times the decibel level that the World Health Organization says is safe – and they’re producing a wind about the speed of an EF five tornado. The low frequency sound can travel like three football fields. It’s still above the safe limit.

RM: So what are the societal impacts? Let’s say we start degrowth right now. What are the benefits?

SC: We can’t go on like we’re on the trajectory that we’re on now, because. A degrowth is going to happen. Either a chaotic, brutal degrowth where it’s a Mad Max kind of future, because we’ve tried to force growth to continue and have destroyed ecosystems

Or we can have a planned, rational degrowth that ensures that there’s enough for everybody and that we’re not causing ecological collapse. But there’s no way that growth can continue at this rate.

Sometime in the past three years, we passed a milestone. The quantity of human made stuff—that is everything that human society has manufactured or built or produced—if you weigh all of it up, the mass of all of that exceeds the total mass of all living things on Earth, all plants, animals, microbes, et cetera, and that quantity of stuff being produced is is doubling every 20 years. And clearly that can’t go on.

Herb Stein, an economist from the 70s or 80s was kind of the Yogi Berra of economists. He had a line: “if something can’t go on forever, it won’t” and that’s where growth cannot go on forever. So we have to pull back, create what I called in the book an “anthropause” of our own, and try to have a rational, safe and just reduction in the amount of economic activity for the good of everybody.

Detroit residents forced out from the Leland apartment building remain in temporary housing as questions grow about what happens next.  

The downtown high-rise was evacuated in November after a power failure, just days after a court-approved payment agreement was reached on an overdue DTE Energy bill tied to the property’s ongoing bankruptcy case.  

The Detroit Fire Department issued a vacate order, and about 25 to 30 residents are staying in a city-paid hotel through mid-January. Many say they’ve received no clear timeline for returning home.  

Advocates say residents were not included in decisions about the building’s future and are now pushing for access to belongings and a right to return. 

Steven Rimmer is director of the Detroit Tenants Union, an advocacy group for renters. 

“I think this is just another situation where there’s been a lot of decisions made about our community without the voice of the community,” he says. “…residents have not been brought into the conversation once about what’s going on, the future of Leland, their future… I think this is just another example of why we need to organize across the country for better rights in our community,” Rimmer says. 

He says the Detroit Tenants Union plans to intervene in the building owner’s bankruptcy case to protect Leland residents’ rights.

Flu cases are on the rise across Michigan.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control say the state has a “very high” level of doctors’ visits for respiratory illnesses.  That’s the top category in the country.  

Doctors recommend children and adults over 65 get a flu vaccine to prevent serious illness and limit the risk of hospitalization.  Officials say only about a quarter of Michigan residents have received a flu vaccine this season.   

The state says 8% of emergency room visits last week were because of flu-related illnesses.

Additional headlines for Jan. 7, 2026

Homicides fall

The number of homicides in Detroit continues to fall.  

The city had 165 murders last year.  That’s the lowest number since 1964.

The police department says other crimes, such as non-fatal shootings and carjackings also fell last year. 

DTE introduces new fee 

DTE Energy will soon begin charging a fee for customers who pay their bills by credit or  debit card.  That’s according to the Detroit Free Press.  Residential customers will pay $2.99 per transaction.  Business customers will be charged $9.99 per transaction when they pay by debit or credit.  The Detroit utility says the fee will go directly to third party vendors who  process those payments.  The change is set to take effect on March 2^nd. 

Gas prices 

Gas prices have risen slightly in metro Detroit over the past week, but they remain below $3 per gallon.  Triple A Michigan says the average price of a gallon of self-serve unleaded is $2.83.  That’s up about five cents from a week ago.  Last year at this time, Detroiters were paying an average of $3.!0 per gallon. 

Temperature rising

Detroiters can expect a bit of a weather warm-up in the next couple of days.  The National Weather Service says temperatures will rise into the upper 40s tomorrow and we might even break a record with a high forecast to be in the upper 50s on Friday.  

The reality of winter returns on Sunday and Monday though, with highs in the 30s. 

Morton fired

The Detroit Lions have fired offensive coordinator John Morton after a disappointing season.  The team failed to make the playoffs this year with a record of nine wins and eight losses.  

Morton called plays for the offense in the first 10 games of the year, but head coach Dan Campbell was not pleased with the team’s inconsistent performance.  Campbell took over offensive play-calling duties in game 11.  

Morton became offensive coordinator last year after the departure of Ben Johnson, who left the Lions to become the head coach of the Chicago Bears.  Chicago won the NFC north division this season and is headed to the playoffs.  The Lions finished last in the division this season. 

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Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield took office on New Year’s Day. But she’s celebrating her achievement with a public swearing-in ceremony this week.

Detroit City Council members, police commissioners and the City Clerk will also take part. The ceremony at the Detroit Opera House features poetry and music performances as well.

Sheffield is the first woman ever elected mayor of Detroit. She says her team is developing an action plan for her first 100 days with input from the community. But she’s also retaining several key officials from the past mayoral administration including the corporation counsel—the city’s top lawyer—and Detroit’s fire commissioner.

Sheffield also announced today that the city will join a program that gives financial support to pregnant women and infants. The city has already raised 9 million dollars to participate in RX Kids. It’s looking for $2 million to fund the program for 3 years.

Sheffield says she hopes to secure the funding to launch the program within her first 100 days.

Additional headlines for Monday, Jan. 5, 2026

State utility regulators demand more transparency

DTE Energy, Consumers Energy, and other regulated utilities in Michigan must do more to inform customers about potential rate hikes. This is because of a new order by state utility regulators.

The Michigan Public Service Commission wants to increase customer participation in utility issues, including cases that set new rates. After March, regulated electric utilities must inform customers when they asked for higher rates, and how much their bills would go up if that amount is approved.

There’s concern that this could confuse people, since rarely do utilities get their full requested amount. But supporters of the change say advance notice will let more people find out about and comment on potential rate hikes before the cases are resolved.

Gas prices

Michigan gas prices have dropped 11 cents since last week. According to the auto group AAA, you can get regular unleaded for $2.70. This new price is 18 cents less than a month ago and 44 cents less than this time last year, making this new price the lowest since February of 2021.

The US strikes in Venezuela this weekend don’t seem to have impacted oil prices just yet, according to AAA. The organization also says Venezuela crude oil exports have been limited due to the sanctions in the last couple of years.

Sports updates

NFL

The Lions beat the Chicago Bears 19-16 yesterday with a walk off field goal kick from Jake Bates, ending the season with a winning record. Now all eyes are on the off season, the NFL draft and seeing how they will bounce back for the 2026 season.

NBA

The Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers yesterday 114-110 and remain on top of the Eastern Conference. Their next game is today at Little Caesars against the New York Knicks and again at Little Caesars on Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls.

Tip off for both is at 7:00 p.m.

NHL

The Red Wings play against the Ottawa Senators tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Canadian Tire Centre. The Red Wings are currently third in the Atlantic Division.

Carl Thomas performs

And R&B singer Carl Thomas known for his smash 2000 hit “I Wish” will be performing at Sound Board on Sunday Jan. 11, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.

The artist from Illinois hit the Billboard Top Hot 100 and peaked at 20. And this year marks the 26th anniversary of his debut studio album “Emotional.”

To hear Thomas live, go to soundboarddetroit.com for tickets and more information.

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