Catch up on some of the top headlines and stories that happened in metro Detroit and Michigan over the weekend of December 28-29.
■ Motorists, businesses prepare for 10-month closure of crumbling I-96 : The Michigan Department of Transportation expects to close the 7-mile stretch of the Jeffries Freeway at the end of January through November to complete a $170-million overhaul, including building a new road and ramps, adding new overhead lighting and updating or replacing 37 bridges. Tens of thousands of drivers will be displaced in the process, forcing them onto other interstates or main thoroughfares for their traveling needs. Detours are feeding drivers onto I-94, I-696 and I-275. – By Marlon A. Walker , Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
■ What now for Heidelberg, as it battles fires and tax problems? : The Heidelberg Project has lost homes and empty lots to unpaid property taxes over the past several years — including its signature “Party Animal House” covered in stuffed animals that is now owned by the city, a Free Press review of city and county records found. The records show underlying problems existed for the urban art nonprofit even before a string of arson fires since May destroyed four of the seven art homes at the project site, a two-block area on and near Heidelberg Street on Detroit’s east side. – By Keith Matheny and Tammy Stables Battaglia , Detroit Free Press Staff Writers
■ Party store owner remembered as ‘good guy’ as police seek his killer : Duraid A Lossia let customers who were short on cash have items and pay for them later and gave people down on their luck odd jobs like shoveling snow to earn a few bucks. Today, customers are remembering the man behind the counter at Tom’s Party Store in Farmington Hills as a good person and family man, as police search for his killer. Lossia ,who owned the store on Inkster Road, was gunned down by a robber on Saturday afternoon. – By Elisha Anderson , Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
■ 1 dead, another wounded after vehicle hit by gunfire on Detroit’s west side : One man is dead and another wounded Sunday afternoon after their vehicle was hit by gunfire on Schaefer near I-96 on Detroit’s west side. Police said the shooting occurred shortly before 1 p.m. and the men then entered the freeway in the wrong direction. – By Elisha Anderson , Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
■ Reimagining Detroit: Duggan must get used to the idea of having less power than past mayors : Little by little, power has seeped away from the city’s chief executive over the years. By any measure, Duggan will wield less power than most of his predecessors, and certainly far less than Orr himself wields today. – By John Gallagher , Detroit Free Press Business Writer
■ Cold homes heat power controversy in Michigan : About 3,200 Lansing Board of Water and Light customers were among those who remained without power Sunday morning, hours after angry and frustrated residents rallied outside an East Lansing elementary school. Many also appeared at a utility news conference Saturday, shouting questions and demanding to learn how much longer they must live in cold, dark homes, on friends’ couches or in hotels. – By Lindsay VanHulle and John Bacon, USA TODAY
■ Mercy High wins national Apple award for innovative use of iPad in curriculum : The school’s pairing of two courses — speech and a digital art class — shows how the iPad is enhancing both of the traditional subjects at Mercy and giving students technology skills, said associate principal Laurence Baker. – By Joe Guillen , Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
■ Snyder OKs testing driverless cars on Michigan roads : He says Michigan “is the automotive capital of the world” and says that allowing testing of automated, driverless cars will help the state “stay at the forefront” in auto technology. – The Associated Press
■ Police searching for escaped Detroit inmate : Adrian Clay, 25, who was paroled earlier this month as a trusty to the former Ryan Correctional Facility, now called the Detroit Reentry Center, was being taken to another part of the complex for a work detail when he escaped, according to Detroit police spokesman Sgt. Michael Woody. – By Eric D. Lawrence , Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
■ Flu outbreak a special hazard for Michiganders struggling for breath with COPD : Smoking and industry emissions put Michigan near the top of the national list for rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, now the third leading cause of death in the U.S. But flu and cold season, now taking hold in Michigan, could bring that data into focus — shaking many Michiganders out of denial, said Dr. M. Safwan Badr, chief of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Harper University Hospital in Detroit. – By Robin Erb , Free Press Medical Writer