Dutch Girl Donuts reopens • Ascension systems remain down • Thunderbowl Lanes sold to Bowlero

FRIDAY NEWS HIT - An iconic Detroit bakery is slinging donuts again, and the crowds are already lined up.

Dutch Girl Donuts reopened Friday, more than two years after closing due to staffing shortages.

Last June, it was revealed that Jon Timmer, the son of late owners Gene and Lauren Timmer, would make the family recipes and Dutch Girl would reopen.

Before the grand opening, Dutch Girl held a sample tasting last weekend for those lucky enough to get their hands on the donuts. 

Thunderbowl Lanes sold

Allen Park's Thunderbowl Lanes has been sold to Bowlero.

"Thunderbowl Lanes is the largest privately held bowling center in the United States and has had the privilege of hosting a number of professional and collegiate tournaments over for the years, including the World Series of 300 bowling, USBC Masters, and NCAA Women’s Finals," according to Thunderbowl.

The sale of the bowling alley that has been run by the same family for decades is expected to be final in June.

"For over the past 80 years, the Strobl family has been involved in all aspects of the bowling world and became the majority owners of Thunderbowl Lanes in 1997. The family would like to thank the bowling community, the City of Allen Park, the staff and the management of Thunderbowl Lanes for all wonderful memories, and we wish for many more to come with Bowlero," according to Thunderbowl Lanes. 

Bowlero has five other locations around the state.

Samantha Woll murder suspect due in court

Michael Jackson-Bolanos, the man accused of killing well-known Metro Detroit Jewish leader Samantha Woll, is due in court Friday morning.

Jackson-Bolanos was arrested and charged with murder several weeks after Woll was found stabbed to death outside her home on Joliet Place in Detroit in October 2023. He was also charged with home invasion and lying to police.

During Friday's motion hearing, a judge is expected to decide if some evidence can be used during trial, particularly calls made while Jackson-Bolanos has been in jail. This hearing is a continuation of last week's hearing about the same issue.

Northern Lights could be visible tonight

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, there's a chance of seeing the aurora as far south as Alabama overnight and into early Saturday. Much of Michigan is supposed to be mostly cloudy on Friday, so that could hinder the sight of the lights.

In Michigan, it is forecasted to be partly cloudy for much of the state, so that could hinder the view.

Still, keep your eyes on the sky this weekend, just in case. On Thursday, NOAA forcecasted a severe solar storm fueled by solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) that began on May 8. According to NOAA, CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth.

This is the first time NOAA has issued a severe geometric storm watch since January 2005. 

Systems remain down after Ascension cyberattack

Computer systems remain down at 140 Ascension hospitals after a cyberattack earlier this week.

Patient Zackery Lopez, who spoke to FOX 2 on Wednesday about the situation inside a Southfield hospital, said he checked himself out and went to another hospital because of the wait.

"I was getting to the point where I was crying because I was in so much pain," Lopez said. "They had to find a doctor to give me medication; they couldn’t find my doctor –my personal, own doctor– for 7 hours to give me pain meds."

Lopez is a cancer survivor, but when he checked himself into the hospital on Tuesday for internal bleeding, he was worried that his cancer had returned, he said. He was in the Ascension emergency room in immense pain when the computer system went down.

"I (didn't) know what to do, I’m just sitting there – worried, scared, my wife is scared out of her mind," the Southfield resident said, adding that he does not blame the hospital's workers, as they did the best they could with the limited resources they had.

Before leaving Ascension, Lopez said he saw multiple other patients checking themselves out due to the chaos.

Ascension said the hospital chain is working to restore its systems and investigate what happened.

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What else we're watching

1. The murder trial for Jaylin Brazier, who is accused of killing his cousin Zion Foster, continues this afternoon.
2. Contractors curious about an extension cord on the roof of a Michigan grocery store made a startling discovery: A 34-year-old woman was living inside the business sign, with enough space for a computer, printer and coffee maker.
3. Police are investigating after a shooting in the area of I-75, near Outer Drive in Melvindale on Thursday night.
4. DNR wildlife managers said an increase in deer harvests last year is an encouraging sign, and it's the first increase in decades that wasn't the result of a policy change or the pandemic.
5. The weekend is finally here. Make plans here.

Stormy Daniels concludes testimony in Trump case

The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial denied a second request from defense attorneys to declare a mistrial over porn actor Stormy Daniels' testimony, which concluded Thursday.

According to the Associated Press, Judge Juan M. Merchan, echoing his denial Tuesday of the defense’s initial mistrial motion, said Trump’s lawyers had opportunities to object to questions that elicited what they said were damaging details about the alleged sexual encounter between the former president and Daniels.

Daniels spent about 7 1/2 hours on the stand over two days. The porn actor recounted, among other things, the alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the former president that she was eventually paid to keep quiet about during the 2016 presidential election.