Your Week in Detroit: August 16–22, 2026

A $4 million fraud case unravels over text message, Jackson Jobe comes back throwing 100, and a week that runs from Gladys Knight to My Chemical Romance.

The Weather: Wednesday Is the Whole Story

Today finishes warm and dry — a high near 87° that feels closer to 92°, with essentially no rain risk. Sunday holds at 86° with light drizzle and about a one-in-three chance of showers, though total accumulation stays negligible.

Monday cools slightly to 82°. Tuesday climbs back to 87°. Both overcast, both dry.

Then Wednesday. An inch and a half of rain, a 51% chance of heavy showers, and a high of just 75° — twelve degrees below Tuesday. It is the single weather event of the week, and it lands squarely in the middle of it.

Thursday recovers to 78°, Friday to 81°, and Saturday closes partly cloudy at 83°.

The short version: everything but Wednesday is fine. Build around it.

The News

'Delete all your messages': texts unravel an alleged $4 million unemployment fraud scheme

Federal investigators say a metro Detroit pair filed hundreds of fraudulent unemployment claims across 32 states — and that the moment the scheme collapsed is preserved in their own text messages.

Shawn Carter, 38, of Woodhaven, and Danielle Thomas, 36, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a criminal complaint filed August 1 in federal court by a special agent with the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General.

The alleged scheme exploited the pandemic-era expansion of unemployment benefits between March 2020 and September 2021, when federal programs directed large supplemental funds to states. Investigators say they connected Carter and Thomas to hundreds of suspected fraudulent claims filed between March 2020 and March 2022, linked by shared IP and email addresses, bank accounts, home addresses and similarities in the claim data itself.

For Carter, agents identified at least 68 suspected fraudulent claims filed in his name using his Social Security number and those of other people. For Thomas, at least 25 in her name, plus another 26 tied to her home address.

The claims generated Bank of America debit cards mailed to Michigan addresses, then drained at metro Detroit ATMs. In one instance tied to a California claim, $20,100 was deposited to a card mailed to a Detroit address; investigators say bank surveillance photos of an August 2020 withdrawal show Carter, whom they identified in part by matching a gold necklace he was wearing to an image on his own phone.

Several people whose names appeared on claims were later interviewed and said they had never filed and had given no one permission — including another man named Shawn Carter, whose Social Security number was allegedly used on a Hawaii claim. An image of that claim was found on Thomas's phone.

The case broke open on October 12, 2021, when Dearborn police responded to a report of "a fraud in progress" at the Dearborn Federal Credit Union. Thomas was allegedly attempting a withdrawal with a fraudulent card. When officers asked for identification, investigators say she produced a counterfeit Pennsylvania driver's license bearing a real person's name and her own photograph. Officers arrested her and say they found multiple fake licenses with her picture, along with several California unemployment debit cards in other people's names.

Her phone, seized during the arrest, contained the text messages. A week earlier, Carter had allegedly asked her to photograph the back of a card so he could check whether it was locked. On the day of the arrest, the messages track him driving into the city, asking her to meet him and bring a specific card, then working through which banks would accept it: "It just decline," she wrote. He replied that he had activated a different one.

Source: ClickOnDetroit / WDIV Local 4

Jackson Jobe returns from Tommy John, and the Tigers refuse to fold

A week after a trade that sent Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize away and had much of baseball writing Detroit off for the season, the Tigers went out and blanked the San Francisco Giants 8–0.

The story was Jackson Jobe, making his first start since May 28, 2025, in his return from Tommy John surgery. He threw five shutout innings, allowed one hit, walked one, and struck out four — the first of them ending on a fastball at 100 mph. He struck out Rafael Devers on three pitches.

"It was a big step to get him back to this level, and he had electric stuff," manager AJ Hinch said. "It was almost a perfect outing when it comes to what we were trying to accomplish — five zeros and getting his pitch count into the 70s."

Jobe, who turned 24 days earlier, described the wait: "I was just excited to show everyone what the past 14 months were for and how hard I worked."

The offense took its time. Detroit loaded the bases in the sixth on three straight walks, and Spencer Torkelson — once prone to swinging his way out of moments like that — took a five-pitch walk instead to score the first run. The seventh broke it open for six: a leadoff double from Zach McKinstry, a single from Kevin McGonigle, a double down the line from Dillon Dingler, then hits from Riley Greene, Eduardo Valencia and Javier Báez. Max Clark hustled a deep hit into a triple, the first of his major league career.

At 57–60, the Tigers sit three games out of the AL Central lead and two out of a wild card.

Source: The Detroit News

Ahmed Hassanein sacked Joe Burrow, then cried on the field

The Lions lost their preseason opener 16–14 in Cincinnati, but the night belonged to a 2025 sixth-round pick.

Ahmed Hassanein sacked Joe Burrow on the first play of his 2026 preseason — and admitted afterward that he broke down on the Paycor Stadium turf. "In the middle of that moment when I got the sack, I cried. I didn't know what to do, man," he said. "But I had to go back on defense."

He finished with two sacks, including a strip-sack of third-stringer Josh Johnson, plus multiple additional pressures. Head coach Dan Campbell said he wasn't surprised — and according to Hassanein, Campbell had told the team that morning, "I see Ahmed sacking Joe Burrow."

Hassanein's path is unusual. Selected 196th overall in 2025, he became the first Egyptian player drafted into the NFL. He didn't start playing football until moving to Southern California at 16, then recorded 22 sacks over his final two seasons at Boise State. A torn pec cost him his entire rookie season; he was waived with an injury settlement and returned on the practice squad.

Elsewhere: rookie first-round tackle Blake Miller played the entire first half and was, as Campbell put it, rarely noticeable — high praise for a lineman. Running back Jacob Saylors led all rushers with 55 yards on eight carries.

Source: The Detroit News

Metro Detroit

GM exits its $3.5 billion Indiana battery venture as EV demand cools

Samsung SDI has acquired General Motors' 49.99% stake in SynergyCells, the joint venture formed in April 2023 to build a $3.5 billion battery cell plant in New Carlisle, Indiana. The project was planned for 27 gigawatt-hours of initial capacity, more than 1,600 jobs, and a 2026 production start later pushed to 2027. The plant remains under construction.

Samsung attributed the buyout to slower-than-expected EV demand growth, and will operate the facility independently — its first fully owned battery plant in North America — making energy storage batteries first rather than EV cells. The two companies signed a separate agreement to develop a prismatic cell for future vehicles.

The move follows a $1.6 billion write-down in October 2025 and a further $6 billion in January 2026, both after the federal $7,500 EV purchase credit expired last September. Ford dissolved its BlueOval SK venture with SK On in December; Stellantis has been reworking its own battery plans since February.

One counterweight: the Ultium Cells plant in Warren, Ohio restarts production Monday, August 17, after a seven-month shutdown, bringing roughly 1,400 workers back.

Sources: Detroit Free Press, Electrive, Battery Technology

What's Happening This Week

Sunday, August 16

The Tigers host the White Sox at Comerica Park, 1:40 p.m. J. Cole: The Fall-Off Tour at Little Caesars Arena, 8:00 p.m. — his first Detroit show in five years. Mon Laferte brings the Femme Fatale Tour to The Fillmore, doors at 7:00. Jutes plays the Majestic.

At Cliff Bell's, the house big band takes on the music of Radiohead — arrangements drawn from OK Computer through In Rainbows, at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.

The DPL Letter Writing Project runs 10 a.m.–6 p.m. at the Lincoln Branch. Write by hand; the library delivers.

Monday, August 17

The library system has a full slate, all free: a Free Vegetable and Flower Share at Parkman (noon–8 p.m.), the Legal Information Series for the Elderly and Special Needs at Douglass at noon covering asset eligibility, Grinnell Brothers Music House of History at Chandler Park at 1 p.m. — Hugh Grinnell on one of Detroit's largest music manufacturers — plus a Back to School Mystery Art Challenge at Conely, Roar & Read toddler time at Sherwood Forest, a knitting circle at Redford, mobile device help for seniors at Parkman, an adult gardening class at Campbell, and Busy Bodies Lego Club at the Children's Library at Main.

Tuesday, August 18

Gladys Knight at the Fisher Theatre. Megan Moroney's Cloud 9 Tour at Little Caesars Arena, 7:00 p.m. Chance Peña at the Majestic, Raspberry Pie with Ambrosia Blue at the Lager House.

The Mobile Library parks at Eastern Market, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., as it does every Tuesday through August 25. The vegetable and flower share continues at Parkman, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Wednesday, August 19

Kindred the Family Soul with Kenyon Dixon at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m. Eagles of Death Metal bring the Death By Sexy 20th Anniversary Tour to Saint Andrew's, 7:00 p.m. Jauron Perry — Detroit trumpeter, MSU educator, 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival Combo Competition winner — plays Cliff Bell's at 7:30 and 9:30.

High school sports are underway: Cass Tech hosts Wyandotte Roosevelt for soccer at 4:30 and 6:00 p.m., and football travels to Melvindale at 2:00.

Thursday, August 20

Damon Terrell's Purple Jazz Tribute at Cliff Bell's, 7:30 and 9:30 — a Detroit-born multi-instrumentalist whose influences run from Prince to Van Halen.

Friday, August 21

A crowded night. My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade with Iggy Pop at Comerica Park, 7:00 p.m. Little Shop of Horrors: 40th Anniversary Screening featuring Ellen Greene at the Fisher Theatre, 7:00 p.m. Dominic Fike at The Fillmore, doors 6:30. Detroit All City Fest at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 8:00 p.m., with 42 Dugg, Babyface Ray, Peezy, Icewear Vezzo and Sada Baby. Michael Blackson at Mic Drop Comedy. StanWill at Saint Andrew's, falooshh at Cliff Bell's, Anastasia Elliot with The Muggs at the Lager House, and Gezellig at the Marble Bar.

Cass Tech hosts Detroit Frontier International for soccer; Detroit teams also travel to Livonia Stevenson.

Saturday, August 22

The Lions open the preseason against Washington at Ford Field, 12:00 p.m.

The Marygrove Conservancy Campus Summer Fest kicks off at noon. MotorCity Cage Night XXV at Sound Board, 7:00 p.m., 21 and over. Dogstar brings the ALL IN NOW Tour to Saint Andrew's at 7:00. Theory of a Deadman and Sevendust at The Fillmore. Ian Fink — Kresge Artist Fellow, pianist on records by Earl Sweatshirt and Kassa Overall — closes the week at Cliff Bell's.

King hosts East Kentwood for football at 1:00 p.m.

Around Metro Detroit

Sunday — Five Finger Death Punch at Pine Knob in Clarkston, 6:45 p.m. The Mitten Barber Expo at the Vibe Credit Union Showplace in Novi.

Wednesday — National Aviation Day at The Henry Ford in Dearborn. Lindsey Stirling's Duality Untamed Tour with PVRIS at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights, 8:00 p.m. The Utica Unicorns host the Eastside Diamond Hoppers at Jimmy John's Field.

Thursday — Empire of the Sun at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights, 7:30 p.m.

Friday — Brandi Carlile's The Human Tour at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre in Rochester Hills, 7:00 p.m. Deep Purple with Kansas at Pine Knob, 6:15 p.m. THE HEARTWORK at the Orchid Theatre in Ferndale.

Saturday — Outlaw Festival brings Willie Nelson, the Avett Brothers and Lukas Nelson to Pine Knob, 3:20 p.m. Billy Currington and Kip Moore at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, 7:00 p.m. NOLA-Fest at The SEVEN in Ferndale. MADVKTM at Elektricity in Pontiac.

Event details and times can change. Confirm with each venue before heading out.