Michigan gas prices hit 2022-high, school mask orders drop, Ukraine support worldwide and at home

MONDAY NEWS HIT - Metro Detroit gas prices jumped 14 cents in a week, tracing along escalating global tensions and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The price of a gallon of gas sits at $3.54 at Detroit-area gas stations, which remains some of the least expensive prices in Michigan but not by much. The most expensive gallon of gas was reported in Saginaw at $3.58.

Motorists would be paying about $53 to fill up a 15-gallon tank of gas - the highest rate since last November and 33 cents higher than in January.

The shaky axis of geopolitics continues to push uncertainty, as well as dimming supply into the oil economy. Russia is one of the world's largest exporters of gasoline. But with many countries ordering businesses to not finance projects from Russia while governments agreed to kick the country off a popular international payment system, it is likely to destabilize flows of crude oil.

Domestic gas stocks fell by 600,000 barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, demand rose by slightly less than 10 million barrels. The two competing pressures will drive the price of gas up in Michigan. 

"Surging oil prices have put upward pressure on Michigan pump prices pushing them to the highest prices since September 2014," said Adrienne Woodland, spokesperson, AAA-The Auto Club Group. "If crude prices continue to climb, pump prices will likely follow suit."

Man mourns loss of friend after shooting at Roseville bar

A Warren man died after being shot several times while another was injured at a Roseville bar Saturday night, police said. The victim was identified as 36-year-old man named Julius who worked as a bouncer at Dooley's Tavern. According to Roseville police, he was removing an individual at the bar when the suspect produced a firearm and shot Julius several times. 

"It's just wild to see somebody with such a kind soul, just doing his job, would be taken away like this. It doesn't make any sense," said Corey Whitfield, a friend of Julius. The shooting happened at approximately 11:40 p.m. Saturday night at the bar, which is located at 32500 Gratiot Avenue. 

Police arrived almost immediately after the shooting occurred, a release from deputies said. There, they found two victims with gunshot wounds before arresting the suspect. He was identified as a 25-year-old man from Farmington Hills. While the suspect was being escorted from the bar, he was fighting with employees. He began shooting while he was being removed. 

"I saw Julius fall. It didn't hit me what really happened until they pulled him away," Whitfield said. "They said he had a faint pulse and I hoped he was going to make it." Julius was taken to the area hospital where he was pronounced dead. The second victim who sustained gunshot wounds during the incident is expected to be okay.

Oakland and Washtenaw County school mask orders lift Feb. 28

School mask mandates in two of Michigan's most populated counties will expire Monday, following orders from respective health departments weeks ago. Both Oakland and Washtenaw County lifted an order in early February that required schools enforce masking among students, teachers, and staff while indoors. 

Those orders will rescind on Feb. 28. Wayne County lifted its mask mandate immediately following an announcement on Feb. 17. It's the latest policy decision that indicates the pandemic's severity from the omicron surge during late 2021 was wavering. Daily COVID-19 case and death counts have dropped off in dramatic fashion in recent weeks.

It's not just local and state officials responding to the declining spread. The federal government updated its mask guidelines Friday that advised most places where most healthy Americans live no longer need to wear face coverings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new recommendations covers about 70% of the U.S. population. It includes people in counties where COVID is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. 

However, it still advises that people, including school children, continue wearing masks in places where the risk is high. Macomb, Wayne, Washtenaw, and Oakland counties were all medium threat level, according to the CDC's interactive map.

Ukrainian troops slow Russian advance under shadow of nuclear threat

Outgunned but determined Ukrainian troops slowed Russia’s advance and held onto the capital and other key cities — at least for now. In the face of stiff resistance and devastating sanctions, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces put on high alert, threatening to elevate the war to a terrifying new level.

Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Ukraine’s border with Belarus. It's unclear what, if anything, those talks would yield.

Terrified Ukrainian families huddled in shelters, basements or corridors, waiting to find out. Exact death tolls are unclear, but Ukraine’s president says at least 16 children have been killed and another 45 wounded, among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other casualties. More than 500,000 people have fled the country since the invasion, a U.N. official said Monday — among the millions who have left their homes.

Russia's Central Bank scrambled to shore up the tanking ruble Monday and the U.S. and European countries upped weapons shipments to Ukraine. While they hope to curb Putin’s aggression after he unleashed Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, the measures also risked pushing an increasingly cornered Putin closer to the edge.

Vigils held for family of three shot to death in Detroit home

Community members held two vigils today for the victims of a triple murder in Detroit last week. The family was found shot inside their home on Evergreen Rd. and Fenkell St. on Feb. 20. The victims were Lashon Marshall, her boyfriend Aaron Benson, and her 5-year-old little boy Caleb Harris. Caleb would have turned 6-years-old today.

Attendees sang happy birthday to Caleb and brought balloons and cupcakes. Vigil members calling for change in the community. "We have to come together as a people and say enough is enough, and I believe we'll see a difference in our community."

"Everybody lock your hands and say today I stand to be the village in my house and my neighborhood," said Pastor Mo, a community activist. Police arrested a 16-year-old prime suspect less than 48 hours after the family was discovered shot to death in their home. "I want to let the entire police department know that I am so thankful, so thankful for what they have done," said Shalesa Floyd, Caleb's grandmother.

A celebration of life was held for Lashon and Caleb today. "She was powerful, she was powerful. She was an expert on poverty, and she wanted to tell her story," said Delores Lyons. "She came out of foster care, and she wanted to help other people who came up in her situation."

What else we're watching

1. Rite Aid says it will send $900,000 to healthy food programs in Detroit as part of the pharmacy's strengthening cities initiative that's intended to reduce health disparities for children. See the breakdown of where the money will go here.
2. It wasn't just high brass government leaders that showed their support for Ukraine this weekend. A flash mob broke out in Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit in a rally for the eastern European country that's been besieged by a Russian military offensive.
3. Michigan State Police are intent on finding the driver of an old Ford pickup truck that shot at a vehicle carrying five people this weekend. See images of the truck here.
4. Some 30 shots were fired during a barricaded gunman scene at a pharmacy in the city of Warren Monday morning. The 34-year-old suspect is in custody, police say. Two women were inside the nearby store that was targeted.
5. The first house Gordie Howe - AKA Mr. Hockey - ever purchased and lived in Detroit is up for sale. The west side home is located in the Aviation District Ellis Subdivision.

Live on FOX 2

Daily Forecast

The weekend is going to be warm. But the week? Not so much. Prepare for a few more rounds of freezing temperatures and possibly some snow before winter's icy grip begins to yield. 

UN report on climate change: Urgent action needed to secure a 'liveable' future

Deadly with extreme weather now, climate change is about to get so much worse. It is likely going to make the world sicker, hungrier, poorer, gloomier and way more dangerous in the next 18 years with an "unavoidable" increase in risks, a new United Nations science report says.

And after that watch out.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said Monday if human-caused global warming isn’t limited to just another couple tenths of a degree, an Earth now struck regularly by deadly heat, fires, floods and drought in future decades will degrade in 127 ways with some being "potentially irreversible."

"The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health," says the major report designed to guide world leaders in their efforts to curb climate change. Delaying cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and waiting on adapting to warming's impacts, it warns, "will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all."

Today’s children who may still be alive in the year 2100 are going to experience four times more climate extremes than they do now even with only a few more tenths of a degree of warming over today's heat. But if temperatures increase nearly 2 more degrees Celsius from now (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) they would feel five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves, according to the collection of scientists at the IPCC.

Already at least 3.3 billion people's daily lives "are highly vulnerable to climate change" and 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather, the report says. Large numbers of people are being displaced by worsening weather extremes. And the world’s poor are being hit by far the hardest, it says.

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