Sarah Cwiek

The Detroit City Council delayed a vote on a controversial urban farm proposal Tuesday.

Hantz Farms had proposed buying more than 140 acres in vacant land on Detroit's east side for a tree farm. It could expand to include other forms of agriculture in the future.

Some Council members were receptive to the idea, but worried about some details. There was concern about approving the plan without a public hearing, and before the city has an urban agriculture ordinance in place.

The Detroit City Council has unanimously rejected a controversial contract to overhaul the city’s water department.

Department officials wanted to award a $48 million contract to Minneapolis-based EMA Consultants.

The company proposed to lay off about 80% of the department’s workforce, in what officials called a necessary move to halt future rate increases.

But critics said the plan would do little more than gut and privatize the water system.

Royal Oak City Commissioners unanimously approved a measure to start drafting a human rights ordinance Monday.

Such an ordinance would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and other characteristics not covered under state or federal law. A number of Michigan cities have similar laws on the books.

Royal Oak voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed human rights ordinance in 2001.

But City Commissioner Jim Rasor is convinced public opinion on gay rights has shifted drastically since then.

Supporters of Amir Hekmati held an art exhibit and fundraiser this weekend in Detroit.

Hekmati’s family is stepping up its public campaign to free the 29-year-old Flint Marine who’s been in prison in Iran for over a year.

The exhibition was held at Detroit’s 555 gallery. That’s a former police precinct turned artists’ space.

The idea was the brainchild of artist Manal Kadry.

The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld the law that empowers the state's emergency financial managers.

Union activist Robert Davis filed suit challenging Detroit Public School's emergency manager Roy Roberts.

Davis alleged that since voters overturned Michigan’s emergency manager law, Public Act 4, Roberts—appointed under that law in 2011—needed to go.

Chrysler will put more than $240 million into three of its southeast Michigan plants.

The automaker is ramping up its engine-making capacity, and making more trucks.

The biggest chunk of the investment will be at Chrysler’s Mack Avenue engine complex in Detroit, which will re-tool to make the V-6 Pentastar engine.

The Warren Truck plant will add a third shift to make the 2013 Dodge Ram 1500. And the Trenton North Engine Plant will also upgrade its production line.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne outlined the plans at the Mack Avenue plant Thursday.

Mayor Dave Bing says the city of Detroit will demolish the vacant Brewster-Douglass housing projects.

The famous—or in more recent years, infamous—Brewster projects sit on 18 acres of what is now prime real estate near downtown Detroit.

Brewster-Douglass was the first federal housing project for African-Americans in the nation. But it’s been vacant for years, and the blighted towers have become one of the most visible eyesores along the city’s skylines, as well as a magnet for crime.

The Detroit City Council has delayed voting on a contract to restructure the city’s water department.

Detroit’s board of water commissioners and Mayor Dave Bing have already approved a plan to contract Minneapolis-based EMA Consulting.

That firm plans to cut up to 80% of the water department’s workforce, and create “efficiencies” by privatizing many so-called “non-core” functions.

But after hearing public concern and anger about the plan, the Council decided to postpone a vote on the $48 million EMA contract.

In part, that’s because the Environmental Protection Agency asked the city not to take action before it can review the plan.

Councilman Ken Cockrel Junior says he want to hear from the EPA before moving ahead.

“The EPA has said they want 45 days to review that contract, and make sure there are no negative impacts,” Cockrel said. “I think when you have a federal agency that is charged with monitoring environmental quality for our country, and they say they need to look at this…I think we need to give them the time to do it.”

Detroit’s water department has been under a federal judge’s oversight since 1977, for periodic failures to comply with the Clean Water Act.

A top Detroit appointee says the city is once again in danger of running out of money.

Program management director William "Kriss" Andrews told Detroit’s financial advisory board Monday that without state help or other adjustments, the city will run out of cash in December.

Some refurbished commuter rail cars will start test runs in southeast Michigan today.

The stainless steel, bi-level cars will run on tracks between Pontiac and Jackson.

State officials hope the cars will eventually be used for separate commuter rail lines connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor, and Ann Arbor and Livingston County.

Janet Foran is with the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Detroit’s former water department head has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge.

Victor Mercado had been a co-defendant in ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s ongoing public corruption case.

Mercado is one of the four people who, along with the former mayor, his longtime friend Bobby Ferguson, and father Bernard Kilpatrick, made up the alleged “Kilpatrick Enterprise.”

Troy voters will decide whether to ditch their controversial mayor on election day.

Recall organizers say Daniels says has drawn all the wrong kinds of attention to the city since she was elected just about a year ago.

Matt Binkowski is with the “Recall Janice Daniels” campaign. He says Daniels has “embarrassed” the city by using anti-gay rhetoric, and leading opposition to a federally funded transit center.

On Tuesday, Michigan voters will decide on Proposal 6—a ballot question about “international bridges and tunnels.”

Though the ballot language doesn’t say it, it’s really a question about whether to go ahead with a long-planned—and highly-contested—new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

It’s a new electoral twist in a bitter struggle--with Michigan’s governor and Canada on one side, and a billionaire bridge owner on the other.

Beaumont and Henry Ford Health systems announced plans today to merge into one non-profit health care system.

It’s a blockbuster move that pairs two of southeast Michigan’s three largest health systems.

Governor Rick Snyder is focused on the Michigan ballot with two weeks to go before Election Day.

On Monday, Snyder appeared alongside Canadian consul general Roy Norton at a Canada-United States Business Association meeting town hall in Detroit.

Both men asked Michigan and Canadian business leaders to support the proposed New International Trade Crossing. And both urged a “no” vote on Proposal 6, which would require a statewide referendum on any new international crossings. He says he’s in “campaign mode.”