More bombshells out of Farmington basketball program • Casinos to stay open amid strike • Biden in Israel

WEDNESDAY NEWS HIT - More fallout from the sexual assault investigation involving a basketball coach at Farmington High School. The school has now fired several other coaches from the basketball program -- for knowing about the alleged behavior and not reporting it.

Farmington Public Schools did not grant an interview to FOX 2 regarding the allegations of the former coach. We then went to the school board and were referred to the superintendent but that led to a dead end as well.

"I was horrified obviously and concerned," said one mom. "I hate to say it, but I wasn’t necessarily surprised just because there has been a culture of covering things up in this district for quite a long time."

It’s the reaction of parents FOX 2 spoke with all day Tuesday. They were nervous to show their faces in the wake of the scandal.

First came bombshell allegations against the Farmington High School boy’s basketball junior varsity coach last week. The Detroit police Special Victims Unit is investigating him for sexual assaults, against his own players.

Sources say he would invite players for overnight study sessions at his Detroit home, then they’d take a terrible, sexual turn. The student-athletes were just 14 or 15 years old.

A day after FOX 2 broke this story there was more shock in the district. Three other coaches were fired for allegedly having some knowledge of these purported sexual encounters and choosing to not report them.

"These are the people that are supposed to keep our kids safe and if they’re not willing to report something as egregious as what was going on, then they have no business being in the coaching or the education field at all," the parent said.

Of those fired, varsity head coach Derrick McDowell, an illustrious coaching career in our area, and as an assistant basketball coach at Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan universities.

Farmington Public School’s said this in part:

"To be clear – the other coaches are not accused of improper conduct with players; rather they did not meet the required threshold as mandatory reporters to ensure the safety and well-being of student-athletes."

"When we have a situation like this, we really need to think about how it happened," the mom said. "And how we can prevent it from happening at another school, with another sport, with other coaches."

The junior varsity coach at the center of it all has been a coach for more than a decade, which could lead to offshoot investigations, outside the one underway by Detroit police.

The coach has not been named because there are no formal charges at this point. He was fired last week as soon as the school learned of the allegations. 

Detroit casinos to remain open amid strike

While five unions representing 3,700 employees among the three gaming centers in Detroit picket for better wages and benefits, MGM, Greektown, and MotorCity casinos will remain open.

In an historic first for the city, engineers, food staff, custodial workers, dealers, and valets announced at noon Tuesday they would no longer work until a fair contract is negotiated with the three casinos.

It could serve as a costly move for the city of Detroit, which soaks up nearly $500,000 a day in taxes from the three casinos. But the workers argue despite the casino industry rebounding from the pandemic, their wages haven't seen the same bounce.

"We remain committed to bargaining in good faith and achieving a contract that is fair to our employees and allows our company to remain competitive in our industry. As we work to resolve the open issues, we will remain open to serve our guests," read a statement from the MotorCity Casino Hotel General Manager.

Ryan Kelley gets jail time

Once a candidate for governor of Michigan, Ryan Kelley will now spend 60 days behind bars for his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Kelley, 42, who positioned himself as a far-right candidate for office who railed against COVID-19 vaccine rules, pleaded guilty to entering a restricted area without authority earlier this year - a one-year federal misdemeanor. Kelley said he participated in the riot because he didn't agree with the outcome of the 2020 election.

He was sentenced to a federal prison on Tuesday. "If you protest in a certain way or a certain thing, you’re going to go to jail," said attorney Nick Somberg. Somberg currently represents a defendant in the alleged fake elector scheme that also spawned out of the 2020 race. 

He said the charges related to Jan. 6 are politically motivated. "Most of these people shouldn’t even have been charged." So far, 1,100 people across the county have been charged with various crimes related to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Before he ran for governor, Kelley was a conservative activist and real estate broker.

Neighbors save Oak Park family amid spreading fire

Albert Wilson had woken up and gotten on his phone when he noticed an orange glow reflecting in its screen. When he turned his head around, he saw a home's carport was on fire. 

Together, he and his brother jumped into action and sprinted across the street. First they banged on the door and windows, but didn't hear any response. Finally, after breaking the windows, the people inside woke up. 

The fire, which was reported at a home in the 2200 block of Sloman in Oak Park, quickly spread to the rest of the house. Three occupants managed to escape the fire. "They were terrorized. They were scared," said Wilson. The fire happened around 1:20 a.m. Wednesday.

"They were asleep. They probably would have died in their sleep," he said. In recalling how he felt in the moment he saw the fire, he knew things would get even worse without quick action. "If they don't come out, I gotta go in. It's as simple as that. I would want someone to do that for my family if it happened to them, if they had an opportunity to get out."

Foul play suspected in missing Genesee County couple

Police are looking for the public's help finding a missing couple believed to be endangered.

Kelly McWhirter, 60, and her husband Steven Higgins, 57 have gone missing under suspicious circumstances for the past few days. Their vehicle also needs to be located, described as a gray 2009 Ford  F-150 pickup truck with the Michigan plate 8PBJ46. It has a chrome running board on the side.

"We've been working this high-profile missing person case all day today," said Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. "We need to find these two individuals. They have been missing for several days and we believe that foul play is involved."

Higgins may be clean-shaven now, according to more recent photos. He also has one discolored front teeth. Swanson says if you see either one of them, call 911 immediately. "We have active investigators in our county and beyond, looking for them as well as the missing F-150," the sheriff said. 

Read more here.

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Daily Forecast

We're looking at temperatures hitting the low 60s Wednesday with partly sunny skies in the forecast. Best enjoy it before rain returns overnight.

What else we're watching

1. Oakland County has expanded its public transit. The county executive rode along one of the buses through the region's increased public transportation routes Tuesday. 
2. The Michigan Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether the government can use drones to surveil citizens on their private property without a warrant.
3. The Detroit Police Department is deploying mobile speed limit signs in a neighborhood Wednesday. The signs, funded with federal dollars, will go up near Dequindre and Grixdale. 
4. A 13-year-old was arraigned on making a threat of terrorism after an incident in the Warren school district. The teen allegedly made the threat earlier this week. 
5. Will the U.S. House select a new speaker? After a failed vote on Tuesday, Republican Jim Jordan said he would call for another vote Wednesday. But more hurdles remain as the chamber grapples with a looming government shutdown. 

Biden: Gaza hospital blast appears to have been 'done by the other team'

President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israelis during his visit there Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital apparently was not carried out by the Israeli military.

"Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But Biden said there were "a lot of people out there" who weren't sure what caused the blast.

Biden didn't offer details on why he believed the blast was not caused by the Israelis. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the destruction and hundreds of deaths. The Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group. However, that organization also rejected responsibility.