Hit by a deluge of foreclosures in the past three years, the City of Detroit said it has found a tool to get some of the houses back into use.

A pilot program that city officials expect to launch soon would take advantage of a federal rule that allows cities to buy homes for $1 after owners default on loans from the Federal Housing Administration and if the federal government cannot sell the houses within six months. The houses would become available in eight months.

The Smart Fourtwo, on display at the recent Detroit auto show, was tested by Mercedes in Ann Arbor.

Mercedes-Benz is considering adding product development capabilities to its Ann Arbor emissions laboratory as it makes plans for a $5 million expansion of the site.

Nautical-lore lovers or those infatuated by the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, say “ahoy” to the new traveling exhibit “Shipwreck! Pirates & Treasure,” set to dock at the Detroit Science Center March 24 through Sept. 1.

The Science Center plans to announce today that Detroit is the first port of call for “Shipwreck!” which is currently at the Museum of Science & Industry in Tampa, Fla., through Feb. 10. The all-ages exhibit offers interactive games, photographs, pirate lore and facts, a tunnel that creates hurricane-force winds, and a robotic arm that retrieves buried treasure. In addition, there will be full-size, replicated portions of shipwrecks, such as the Civil War-era SS Republic that sank during a hurricane off the coast of Georgia in 1865, as well as a number of actual artifacts from the ship.

Punk Fitness Detroit is held at several different locations and times each week. It’s in Ferndale on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the Kulick Community Center at a cost of $58 per six-week session; in Huntington Woods, Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. at the Huntington Woods Recreation Center at a cost of $85 per eight-week session; in Detroit, Saturday nights at the Magic Stick on a drop-in basis at a cost of $5 per class; and in Hamtramck on Tuesday nights at the Belmont on a drop-in basis at a cost of $5 per class.

Cookies, one of the most wholesome snack foods, have lost their innocence.

The sugary disks have joined the ranks of campus’s late-night drunken munchies thanks to the opening of an Ann Arbor franchise of Insomnia Cookies, a company committed solely to delivering fresh-baked cookies in student neighborhoods at night.

DETROIT — Tumbling prices for once-pricey downtown lofts and condos are bringing in a flurry of buyers, providing a surge in December sales not seen since the bygone era of easy mortgage financing.

“I tell most of my clients there is $100,000 wiggle room on certain units right now,” said Sabra Sanzotta, owner of the Loft Warehouse realty agency, which specializes in downtown properties. With that bargaining leverage, Sanzotta sold six high-end units in the past month, including a downtown penthouse for $200,000. Original price: $511,000. It was her best month of sales since 2003, Sanzotta said.

Hamtramck’s always held kind of an almost magical ambience for me. For as long as I can remember, the city’s had a great indescribable vibe to it — down-to-earth, never taking itself too seriously, and all about having fun. Hamtown’s always been a music mecca to my way of thinking, even if only cult heroes have ever come out of there. But that makes it all the cooler.

“It’s not so much that Hamtramck is more important than any other local scene,” says local publicist Becki Carr of Yarrr! PR, “but Hamtramck just has its own flavor. People who live in Hamtramck — or just hang out there and play shows there — tend to be pretty proud of the town. Going into Hamtramck is almost like going into a very small foreign country. Going back as far as the York Brothers’ ‘Hamtramck Mama” and all the way up to the Lili’s 21 and Paycheck’s punk scene and the Motor City techno scene, Hamtramck has been host to some pretty incredible musical history.”

DETROIT — A line-up of all the entertainment, activities and restaurants for the fourth annual Detroit Winter Blast was announced Monday at a traveling press conference in downtown Detroit.

Participants at the meeting were the first to experience some of the music, food and fun before the actual festival weekend held on February 8-10.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has granted nearly $7 million to eight Detroit initiatives. “These grants are supporting the citys efforts to become the Next Detroit. We are supporting the city plan for neighborhood revitalization while partnering with other foundations and local leaders in order to move the city forward,” said Brenda Price, Knight Foundations program director for Detroit, in a statement.

The Mercury Coffee Bar will open in Corktown this spring, bringing coffee, tea, pastries, salads and paninis to the corner of Michigan Ave. and 14th St.

The venture is being undertaken by Todd Wickstrom, who co-founded Heritage Foods USA after spending four years as a managing partner of Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor. Wickstrom decided to open a restaurant in Detroit after spending time on a Michigan Food Policy Council task force that examined the food desert issue. “The focus is to use food to drive economic development in the city,” he says. “We want to really use business solutions in a lot of areas that are typically the realm of non-profits and foundations.”

Wickstrom is working with local urban gardens and Michigan farmers to supply the restaurant and is dedicated to job creation and employee training. “Part of what we’re trying to do is create as many jobs as possible,” he says. “The thing with retail food is that you have to have people to make it work.”

The bulk of the first floor of the restaurant will be occupied by the kitchen and bakery, although there will be window seating — with views of the Michigan Central Station included, natch.

What makes a Detroit dance club really rock? Is it the people, the place, the sound, or a combination of all three? Well, of course, it is. But then there are the intangibles, something rare that is not easily put into words.

Those rare intangibles are what made Oslo the premier spot for dancing the night away (not to mention supping on miso soup, asparagus-cucumber rolls and drinking sake at the sushi bar on the main level) the minute it opened in spring 2004. Back then, events at the basement club at Woodward and John R were promoted by Detroit-based Soft Curls (one of the promoters re-located to Warsaw, Poland), which parlayed its connections to Motor City techno titans Underground Resistance and Submerge Recordings, and the growing minimal scene in Berlin and Cologne, Germany, into sweaty, overflowing oh-so-much-fun dancefloor mayhem. European stars Michael Mayer, Superpitcher, Miss Kittin, Ellen Allien and former Windsorite Richie Hawtin all had memorable dates during Oslo’s first life, which lasted for nearly three years (trust us, an eternity in the crazy, hazy world of techno).

“He heard me talk about the Charlevoix store at the bar and he tapped me on the shoulder and said I should try it in Detroit,” Warner said.

The market plans to open on the first floor of Belyue’s Crystal Lofts development at Woodward and Watson. The project will have 17 lofts ranging in size from 890 square feet to 2,200 square feet and range in price from $189,000 to $450,000. The first units will be ready in February, he said.

Metro Detroit’s inventory of commercial real estate continues to provide hot prospects for out-of-town investors.

Seven of 2007’s 10 biggest sales were purchased by companies or investors outside metro Detroit. The area’s reputation as a risky place for investment has been both good and bad.

Aaron Cohen, 24, of Birmingham, hangs out in Revive, his Birmingham store on Jan.12. Cohen is one of the youngest business owners in downtown Birmingham. The store carries clothing and shoes that are almost impossible to find anywhere else in metro Detroit: Custom-made, limited edition Nikes that can fetch $700 a pair; hooded sweatshirts and T-shirts by labels such as King Stampede that only the hippest connoisseurs of such items would know.

Admission: All-event passes are $50 for adults and $45 for students. A Saturday pass is $30 for both adults and students. Individual admission is $8 for adults and $6 for students. Tickets for Thursday night’s session in the Frauenthal Theater is $15, and included in the all-event passes. Passes available at all Star Tickets Plus outlets including the Frauenthal box office.