A 48-year-old Hamtramck man has been arraigned and charged with kidnapping and assaulting a 16-year-old Hamtramck student on Monday. CBS News reports Donald James Joseph Arthur Fields is being held without bond at the Wayne County Jail. 

The student was kidnapped at gunpoint from a bus stop and forced into a white van. Other students were able to track her location through her social media and alert police. The teen also managed to call the police herself.  

The kidnapper took the student to a local gas station, where the student mouthed “help” to the attendant who intervened and walked the kidnapper outside. Police arrested Fields within 30 minutes of the kidnapping. 

Hamtramck Police Chief Hussein Farhat says this was an isolated incident. A probable cause conference is slated for Fields on April 30. 

Additional headlines for Thursday, April 16

Attorney General Dana Nessel files against Consumers Energy

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed testimony against the state’s largest energy provider.

Nessel urged the Michigan Public Service Commission to cut 61% of a $240 million request from Consumers Energy for another rate hike. This comes after the commission already approved a $157 million rate hike for Consumers Energy in December.

Nessel says Consumers Energy allegedly inflated their costs and customers ultimately take a hit. If approved, customers would save $146 million in future costs.  

Consumers Energy provides electricity and natural gas to about 2 million people in Michigan.  

Coalition for Property Tax Justice says overassesments continue in Detroit

The Coalition for Property Tax Justice continues to fight with the City of Detroit over its property assessments. Overassessments by the city have led to thousands of foreclosures. 

Coalition founder Professor Bernadette Atuahene says a recent study shows overassessments of lower-priced homes are still happening. 

“A report released this year shows that 50% of the homes worth 70,000 and under are still being assessed in violation of the Michigan State Constitution, which quite clearly says no property should be assessed at more than 50% of its market value.” 

City Assessor Alvin Hornh tells WDET his office has adjusted its Economic Condition Factors to get a better idea of what is happening in a particular neighborhood. 

A recent report by the International Association of Assessing Officers showed the city complied with state law. 

– Reporting Russ McNamara   

U-M president elect diagnosed with cancer

The University of Michigan Regents announced U of M president-elect Kent Syverud has brain cancer and will not be able to serve as the school’s next president. 

Syverud issued a written statement saying in part that he is “ready to meet this challenge.” 

Syverud was selected as U of M’s next president in January. He was scheduled to start next month. Board Chairman Mark Bernstein says the university will begin a new presidential search soon. He says Domenico Grasso will continue to serve as the university’s interim president as the school searches for a new leader. 

– MPRN   

Flood watch 

A flood watch is in effect for much of southeastern Michigan until midnight.

Kyle Klein is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s White Lake office. He says the risk of flooding comes after several days of above-average rainfall, leaving the ground heavily saturated. 

“Most of the area in the past 10 days has seen between 1.5 – 4.5 in of rain. And then we’ve picked up anywhere from an inch to basically 2.5 inches in places.”  

Klein says while storms aren’t expected to be as heavy as the round that passed through the region Tuesday night, they may still bring additional inches of rainfall. That could result in water backing up onto roads and into basements. 

– Reporting by Alex McLenon

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President Trump is continuing to push lies about the 2020 presidential election in Detroit, and using his unsupported claims of fraud to push for federal oversight of midterms.

During an executive order signing to end the government shutdown, Trump told reporters he thinks Republicans should take election rights away from some states that the president did not win in 2020. He used three prominent swing states as examples. 

“Take a look at Detroit… take a look at Pennsylvania… take a look at Philadelphia. You go take a look at Atlanta. Look at some of the places that… horrible corruption on elections.” 

Prominent Republican strategist and Trump-ally Steve Bannon has said ICE agents would be sent to polling places in this year’s midterm elections. 

Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey says any attempt to take over voting would be partisan politics at its worst. Winfrey says the results were fair and transparent then and subsequent elections have been, too. The U.S. Constitution says states decide how to conduct elections. Congress can enact some regulations, but the president has no control over elections. 

Additional headlines for Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026

Critique on Sheffield’s order on assessments

The Coalition of Property Tax Justice says Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield’s recent executive order is too vague and does not do enough to stop over assessments in the city.  

Sheffield signed an order last week aimed at improving transparency in the city’s assessment process and requiring the office to meet national standards.   

Professor Bernadette Athutahene says the order does not specify how to conduct an assessment ratio study, which is required by the property tax reform ordinance.  

“We thought that the executive order would say, you know, to do a mass appraisal report, and those two things are different. The mass appraisal report, you can’t apply Iao standards to a mass appraisal report.”

The coalition did praise Sheffield for requiring the office follow the ratio standards of the International Association of Assessing Officers.  The coalition published a revised version of the executive order with more parameter specifics for a property assessment.  

ICE detention facility proposed in Romulus

A 500 bed ICE detention facility has been proposed for Romulus, but officials say it’s not set in stone. Romulus was among 23 locations nationwide identified in a recent Bloomberg report detailing the Trump administration’s plan to buy warehouses and convert them into ICE detention centers. 

The Washington Post reported in December that a warehouse in Highland Park was being looked at as a potential location. The Mayor of Highland Park has recently said the city was not interested at all and the city lacks the space for such a plan.  

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