Detroit reports fewest murders since 1966 • Flight prices spike before CFP championship • Ground beef recall

WEDNESDAY NEWS HIT - In 2023, Detroit recorded its lowest murder rate in 57 years.

The city recorded 252 homicides in 2023, according to data from the Detroit Police Department. In 2022, there were 308 homicides. Overall, the data shows a 1.6% decline in crime rates in Detroit from 2022 to 2023.

Police and city leaders are set to expand on 2023 crime stats during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

They will also highlight what they say helped get to this point. This includes community partnerships, and tools such as Project Greenlight and ShotSpotter.

"In my time on the job, the first 16 years, we averaged 544 homicides a year. Every two days, three people were murdered in the city of Detoit. In the last 16 years, about 345," said Steve Dolunt, a retired DPD assistant chief. 

Flights to Houston skyrocket head of CFP National Championship

The Wolverines will take on the Huskies on Jan. 8 at NRG Stadium, but if you want to catch the game in person, be prepared to shell out thousands.

Flights on Delta, American, Southwest, and United are all $1,400 or more, with some seats on a flight costing nearly $4,000 if you leave on Sunday and return Tuesday. You won't pay less than $2,500 for a seat on a Delta plane.

The most affordable option, Spirit Airlines, has tickets for less than $400 as of Wednesday morning, but there are few seats left on each flight.

Delta said the airline is adding nine flights and nearly 1,300 seats for football fans headed to NRG Stadium in Houston from Detroit and Seattle, launching a route from Detroit Metro to Hobby Airport in Houston. That’s in addition to the airline’s already existing route from Detroit to the George Bush airport.

Prosecutor Kym Worthy talks struggles, accomplishments

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy first gained significant attention after prosecuting former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2008. She's remained in the spotlight since then.

Worthy has been the county prosecutor for nearly 20 years. She sat down with FOX 2 recently to discuss her struggles and accomplishments in that role.

"If you stack up Wayne County versus the other 82 counties, we do more than them together," she said. 

Worthy said staffing has been an issue for her office, something she is working to improve.

In 2023, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office announced an increase in starting salaries and additional benefits to lure more lawyers to handle the case load.

"It matters because I’m sure if something happened to you or one of your loved ones, you would want a prosecutor's office… that’s committed, that has full resources to do your case, that’s able to keep in touch with you at every bend and turn through their victim advocacy, that your case is done the proper way the first time," Worthy said.

Despite experiencing a shortage in staffing and a large number of cases, the prosecutor's office has been accomplishing a lot with little resources.

In 2009, Worthy's office discovered over 11,300 sexual assault kits left in an abandoned Detroit police storage facility. 

Ground beef recalled over E.coli

Ground beef and uncooked patties sold in several states, including Michigan, are being recalled due to E.coli.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) described the strain of E.coli as a "potentially deadly bacterium."

The meat from Valley Meats LLC have "EST. 5712" within the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection mark.

Distributor facilities in four states received the recalled meat for later shipments to restaurants and "other institutional users," according to the FSIS. The states where the distributor locations were included Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan.

Minimum wage rises to $10.33 an hour

Michigan's minimum wage increased heading into the new year.

The new wage is now $10.33 an hour. The tipped minimum wage also climbed to $3.93 an hour. Before 2024, the wages were $10.10 and $3.84, respectively.

This wage change law was enacted by the state's Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act of 2018 and established an annual schedule of increases. It's the second of three scheduled raises with another raise coming on Jan. 1, 2025, to establish the state's minimum wage at $10.56. 

While more money is good for workers, some business owners call it a challenge.

"I think it’s tough being a business and paying more but I believe everybody deserves a little more but it’s a crazy world, everything is so expensive, it's difficult to make ends meet," said Danial Goodman, the general manager of Lou's Deli.

For Goodman, the costs eventually get passed onto the consumer. 

Live on FOX 2

Daily Forecast

Wednesday will be could with some possible flurries in the afternoon.

What else we're watching

1. The Michigan Department of State will hold a livestreamed random selection at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to replace three commissioners who resigned from the 13-member Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
2. Ecorse Mayor Lamar Tidwell denies making vulgar statements about a councilwoman during a meeting last week. Gabrielle Worthy said she feels Tidwell used expletives to describe her, but Tidwell says he didn't.
3. A domestic argument inside a Wyandotte home escalated into a deadly shooting early Tuesday. A 22-year-old woman died from a gunshot wound and her 23-year-old boyfriend suffered a cut to his leg.
4. Michigan's First Gentleman said he retired from dental practice early due to threats at the time of the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping trial.
5. Deputies are investigating after a man was hit and killed by two vehicles on Perry Street and Pontiac Road around 4:30 a.m. on New Year's Day. Both drivers left the scene.

Jeffrey Epstein list: 150 high-power associates to be named soon

A federal judge has ordered the public disclosure of the identities of more than 150 people mentioned in a mountain of court documents related to the late-financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying that most of the names were already public and that many had not objected to the release.

The people whose names are to be disclosed, including sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, Epstein’s employees — and even some people with only a passing connection to the scandal — have until Jan. 1 to appeal the order, signed Monday by Judge Loretta A. Preska.

For several years, Preska has reviewed documents sought by the Miami Herald from a civil case, filed by one of Epstein’s victims, that eventually was settled.

Many of the records related to that lawsuit were publicly released in past years, but on Monday the judge made determinations about some portions of the records that were initially withheld on potential privacy grounds and what can be made public about certain people mentioned in the records.

Read more here.