Sarah Cwiek

More than three-dozen U.S. and Canadian agencies participated in a mock-disaster situation on the Detroit River Tuesday.

The drills included a mock terrorist attack on a large riverboat, and a follow-up search-and-rescue operation.

Officials say the exercise caps three years of interagency planning to prepare for possible disasters along the international maritime border.

In an effort to lure people back to the city, Detroit officials have unrolled generous housing incentives programs for police officers and city employees.

That’s left many current residents asking about similar help for people who never left the city.

Now, Mayor Dave Bing has announced such a program. It’s a grant program through Citizens bank to help homeowners make exterior improvements.

Bing says improving how neighborhoods look can start a positive domino effect.

Hundreds of people rallied against racial profiling and for immigration reform in southwest Detroit Saturday.

The marchers protested what they call the increasingly abusive tactics directed toward members of Detroit’s Latino and Arab communities.

Protesters singled out Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. They say those federal agencies have created a climate of fear, especially in southwest Detroit’s immigrant communities.

Congressman Hansen Clarke says Detroit needs a “SWAT team”-style barrage of emergency aid for the city.

Clarke is a first-term Congressman from Detroit. He says he plans to introduce legislation that will take existing federal taxes Detroiters pay, and make sure they stay in the city.

Clarke says that money should be directed toward keeping schools open longer, encouraging immigrant entrepreneurship, stabilizing the housing market and creating jobs.

The White House has honored two Detroit-based entrepreneurs as Champions of Change.

Josh Linkner and Torya Blanchard were two of 11 young entrepreneurs who shared their stories about starting businesses in Washington, DC Thursday.

Detroit is expanding Project 14, a housing incentive program that initially targeted police officers, to all city employees.

It’s part of an effort to entice people to live where they work, and re-build Detroit’s population.

All Detroit city employees had to live in the city until state law overturned a residency requirement in 1999. That dealt a crushing blow to Detroit’s already-diminished tax base.

A U.S. District Court judge says the Nigerian-born man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner nearly two years ago can represent himself at trial.

So-called “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been acting as his own lawyer in pre-trial hearings. But he also has court-appointed standby counsel.

The Detroit program meant to lure police officers back to live in the community they serve has officially welcomed its first resident.

Currently, most Detroit police officers live outside the city. Project 14 aims to entice them back with generous housing incentives.

Thousands of people waited for hours just to get inside Wayne County Community College Tuesday, where employers were ready to take names and resumes.

The job fair was part of a nationwide tour hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus. It’s meant to draw attention to unemployment among African Americans.

The only Muslim in the Michigan state legislature says a bill that targets “foreign laws” is xenophobic political pandering, and offensive to the Muslim community.

Detroit State Representative Rashida Tlaib blasted the bill that aims to “restrict the application of foreign laws.”

15 people were shot in about 24 hours this past weekend in Detroit. 7 of them died.

The bloody day has police and city officials scurrying to find ways to combat surging gun violence.

Overall, violent crime is down in Detroit this year. But that’s been overshadowed by a spike in homicides—more than 220 already. That’s almost one every day. The vast majority are shootings, and most of the victims and perpetrators are young men.

Two Detroit residents active in community policing agree the violence stems fundamental problems in the city’s broken communities.

Prosecutors have dropped charges against 10 people who were arrested for civil disobedience at a Detroit school in April.

Students and a teacher at the Catherine Ferguson Academy for pregnant and parenting teens were arrested during a sit-on to protest the school closing.

The Detroit Public Schools later announced that a charter operator would take over the school.

Detroit Police and local businesses are teaming up for a new downtown security initiative.

Project Lighthouse involves more than 20 businesses in the city’s central business district. They’ll give police access to more than 300 private security cameras in the area.

Rick Fenton, Vice President of Corporate Security for Ilitch Holdings, says the initiative evolved out of private sector collaboration with federal agencies and police to monitor big downtown events.

The board that will run the statewide district for Michigan’s lowest-performing schools met for the first time in Detroit Thursday.

Governor Snyder says the Education Achievement System will eventually take on the bottom 5% of schools across the state, starting in Detroit in 2012.

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts is also heading the EAS. That’s a concern for some, including Detroit Federation of Teachers Vice President Mark O’Keefe.

Detroit Police say they’ve made an arrest in a murder case that sparked what the police chief calls an “unusual level of outrage” in the community.

3-year-old Aarie Berry died after someone shot at her house last month. Police have arrested a neighbor they say was part of an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood.