Ascension cyberattack • Cop testifies in Jaylin Brazier's trial • Wayne County air quality monitoring

THURSDAY NEWS HIT - A cyberattack has disrupted service at Ascension hospitals.

"We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts. Access to some systems have been interrupted as this process continues," the hospital said in a statement Wednesday.

One patient said he waited hours for pain medication while watching other patients check them out of the Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield.

"Right now it is crazy. Nurses are running around. Doctors are running around. There’s no computers whatsoever they can use," Zackery Lopez said. "So, they’re actually using charts."

According to the hospital group, 140 Ascension locations are affected by the cyberattack, as well as 40 senior living facilities. The unusual activity was first noticed Wednesday.

"Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. We have notified the appropriate authorities and are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation," Ascension's statement said.

Testimony continues in Jaylin Brazier's murder trial

When court resumes Thursday, a Detroit police sergeant will return to the stand to testify in Jaylin Brazier's murder trial.

Brazier, 25, is accused of murdering his cousin Zion Foster in 2022. Brazier has told police that Foster died while he was smoking marijuana with her. He alleges that he had nothing to do with her death but did throw her body in a dumpster.

During court on Wednesday, Detroit Police Sgt. Shannon Jones testified about interviewing Brazier after Foster's death.

"We smoked. All we had was weed – normal marijuana. So I freaked out and I said this looks terrible. It looks very bad. I didn't know what to do. So I took her, I put her into my trunk, I took her to Highland Park and put her inside of a trashcan and then I left," Brazier told police. 

Jones will continue testifying today.

Other testimony Wednesday included the revelation that an apparent suicide note was found in Brazier's home after Foster died. That note maintained his innocence, "regardless of the lies being made against me."

Police hospitalized after possible drug exposure

Two Auburn Hills police officers were hospitalized Monday after possibly being exposed to drugs during an arrest.

The officers started to feel sick and dizzy during the routine traffic stop and were taken to the hospital. It's unclear what the two officers were exposed to while checking out a vehicle on Pontiac near Commonwealth Avenue.

In at least one other case where a member of law enforcement got sick after being exposed to drugs, sources with the Detroit Police Department said the offending narcotic was fentanyl. It happened while an officer touched a driver's license during a traffic stop a while back.

Steve Dolunt, a former assistant chief with DPD said the added threat of exposure to a lethal amount of something like fentanyl only makes routine stops more dangerous.

"The problem is there’s no such thing as a routine traffic stop. Whether it’s stopping someone for a gun, traffic violation - if they have narcotics in the car, especially with fentanyl - it’s deadly. Whether they know it or not, if someone dies from that, they’re going to be charged with some type of murder," he said.

Wayne County air monitors installed

Wayne County helped unveil 100 air quality monitors on Wednesday. These monitors in some of the more environmentally-sensitive parts of the county will give residents a way of tracking what they're breathing.

Helping people get real-time information on air quality was the short-term goal, but JustAit Solutions founder Darren Riley says bigger goals are behind the new monitors: data.

"How can we bring solutions and measure a real return on investment on solutions that can really intervene to help mitigate some of that pollution?" he said. 

Armed with better data, officials and the citizens they govern can better point to where, when, and how severe air quality issues are in metro Detroit. The county-wide network will be accessible through the JustAir app, which texts subscribers alerts about if the quality in their area is poor.

Soon, data will be able to do more than just that.

"All those monitors come from different suppliers, different types of monitors. Some measure different pollutants and all the data is synchronized to our database and our back-end software," he said.

Portage tornado confirmed

Cleanup efforts are now underway after an EF-2 tornado touched down in Portage on Tuesday.

The tornado ripped through buildings and homes, leaving behind a trail of destruction. 

Despite all the damage, only minor injuries were reported, and no one was killed. 

Portage Mayor Patricia Randall said that only eight people went to the hospital for minor injuries. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency for four counties in that region: Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Branch and Cass.

"We do have over 100 families that have been removed from their houses because the damage was so extensive," Randall said, adding that most power is expected to be restored by Thursday as cleanup continues.

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Daily Forecast

Today will feel much different than yesterday. Temperatures are down and rain returns.

What else we're watching

1. A motorcyclist was killed in a crash involving a car Wednesday evening in the 18900 block of Morang in Detroit.
2. The Pontiac Lake Road bridge is closed between Airport and Crescent Lake roads in Waterford Township due to a hole in the bridge.
3. A Michigan man carrying explosives traveled to Massachusetts in 2023 and later said he wanted to blow up a building in Salem known as the Satanic Temple, according to a federal indictment.
4. A Michigan doctor and the practice he worked for will pay more than $2 million in a Medicare and Medicaid fraud case, the Department of Justice announced this week.
5. A former township clerk and her attorney were both charged in a 2020 election-related probe that found the 52-year-old public official withheld a voting tabulator from authorized people before directing her lawyer to illegally transmit the data.

Biden refuses to supply Israel weapons for potential Rafah assault

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there.

Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the U.S. was still committed to Israel’s defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, "we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used, that have been used."

The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800, 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700, 500-pound bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.