After the screams died down and the smoke dissipated, the passenger cabin of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day was eerily quiet. An Indian woman stared out the window at the fast-approaching subdivisions and freeways surrounding Detroit Metro Airport. A businessman frantically texted on his BlackBerry. A scared mother clutched her children.

The Kresge Foundation has enlisted and subsidized noted urban planner Toni Griffin to help downsize Detroit.

Stymied by a judge who halted weekly furloughs for 700 workers whose union refused to accept 10 percent pay cuts, the Wayne County executive this week issued the first round of permanent layoff notices to 31 county employees.

Osborn Upper School of Global Communications and Culture, as it is formally known, is among 45 Detroit school facilities slated to be closed this summer, with 13 more by 2012.

The Rev. Glenn Plummer, a prominent pastor who has filed to run against U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, and his communications company owe more than $513,000 in delinquent federal taxes, according to public records filed since last year.

Detroit -- Fire officials are investigating an early morning blaze that ripped through the Paris Hotel, killing one person and critically injuring another.

Detroit -- Leaders of the city's largest union pitched their cost-savings plan to the City Council on Wednesday and ramped up their fight with Mayor Dave Bing by demanding respect.

Detroit -- Sections of a welcome area in southwest Detroit built by owners of the Ambassador Bridge as part of the Gateway Project may have to be removed or altered after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against the bridge company on Wednesday.

In Detroit, the buzz is about one incredible shrinking city -- empty houses, fewer people, fallow land aplenty for urban farms or parks.

A trial date for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could be set at a hearing April 13 in U.S. District Court in Detroit.