Sarah Cwiek

This year, 17,000 customers have had their water shut off because of late payments. Residents are upset with how the city is going about it, and question whether some are getting special treatment.

State lawmakers are debating bills that would give Detroit about $200 million as part of a larger aid package. Many Republicans are balking at the deal after threats of political retribution.

While Chinese investors have been eyeing cheap real estate in Detroit since the city's bankruptcy filing last year, they're not in a tremendous rush to buy.

In January 1914, Henry Ford started paying his auto workers a remarkable $5 a day. Doubling the average wage helped ensure a stable workforce and likely boosted sales since the workers could now afford to buy the cars they were making. It laid the foundation for an economy driven by consumer demand.

New Year's Day has become its own holiday of sorts for some hockey fans. The Detroit Red Wings play the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Wednesday in front of more than 100,000 people. The game time weather forecast: about 18 degrees, with an 80 percent chance of snow.

The Wayne County, Mich., prosecutor charged 54-year-old Theodore Paul Wafer with murder in the second degree for the shooting death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride. McBride was shot to death on Wafer's front porch in Dearborn Heights in the early morning hours of Nov. 2. Her family says she was seeking assistance after a car accident. A toxicology report shows McBride was intoxicated at the time.

Even before the city's recent bankruptcy filing, Detroit was often viewed with scorn and even contempt. And you'll find as much, if not more, of that attitude toward Detroit in the state of Michigan itself. But how did Detroit get such an intensely bad reputation? And how might it affect the city's ability to rebuild itself in bankruptcy?

Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager says the city is bankrupt and the fight over who will get what is heating up. In the next month, Kevyn Orr will try to wring concessions out of the city's creditors before he decides whether to take the whole mess to bankruptcy court. Orr's plan proposes "shared sacrifice among all creditor groups." But in reality, that pits the city's retirees against its bondholders — and bondholders against each other.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced last week that he'll appoint an emergency manager for the city of Detroit. That means an unelected person will have sweeping powers to try to stop Detroit's financial hemorrhaging.

In Michigan, voters will decide on a ballot measure that would mandate statewide referendums for any new international border crossings. That seemingly neutral language masks a very specific — and bitter — political battle over whether to build a new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.