Hey, you're busy — we get it.
We know a lot happens throughout the week, and you may not catch all of our stories here at WXYZ. So we've decided to gather the most talked-about stories from the past week all in one place that you can check out during your free time over the weekend.
Have a story idea or tip? Feel free to let us know using the contact form below.
Here are the big stories from the week beginning Feb. 3.
After 40+ years in restaurant business, family selling Crews Inn in Harrison Twp.
Crews Inn in Harrison Township has been family-owned for more than 45 years, and on Wednesday, the Metry family announced they were selling the restaurant.
“It’s a wonderful place, it’s a great location,” said Jeff Metry, co-owner of Crews Inn.
Metry’s dad and uncle bought the restaurant in 1976.
"They were attorneys by trade and didn’t know much about running a restaurant, but they gave it a go and we had a lot of family who worked here throughout,” Metry added.
After years of serving customers, Metry says he decided it’s time to retire from the restaurant business.
“My dad passed in 2022, my brother and sister are hands-off owners and quite frankly, I’m a little tired,” said Metry.
As far as what’s next for the Crews Inn building, it is being sold to the owners of Bumpers Landing, which is right next door.
“It was something that if it became available, we would talk and we were happy to acquire,” said David Colling, general manager at Bumpers Landing.
Metro Detroit ERs seeing more patients, longer waits amid flu season
For Shannon Ziegler of Westland, a trip to the emergency room a few weeks ago was unlike any she’d ever experienced. She is diabetic and had chest pains and other symptoms, and was concerned she was having a heart attack.
"Was triaged right away. They did an EKG, ordered a chest X-ray, blood work. That was all done,” said Ziegler.
Although the test results came back clear on her MyChart, she spent more than 10 hours waiting in the lobby and a chair in the hallway until a doctor was able to see her and send her home.
“It was almost 12 hours of waiting,” said Ziegler. "Emergencies kept on happening that were more severe than mine, that's what they kept telling me every time I asked.”
From Trinity Health to Henry Ford to Michigan Medicine to Corewell Health, local hospitals tell me they’re all seeing an increase in patients. Everything from slip and falls on the ice to respiratory illnesses like COVID, RSV, and flu.
“The hospitals, as I indicated, are very full right now; they always get very full in respiratory virus season,” said Dr. Matthew Sims, Director of Infectious Diseases Research at Corewell Health East.
Doctors Matthew Sims and CJ Gibson from Corewell Health say it’s been a particularly bad season for respiratory illness, with influenza accounting for 10% of their ER visits. They called a virtual press conference urging patients who have more mild symptoms to call their doctor or visit an urgent care instead.
She's a soldier and Miss USA. How one Michigan native aims to inspire others through service
She's a U.S. Army officer, a student at Stanford and Miss USA, just to name a few. At 22 years old, Michigan native and Afro-Latina Alma Cooper is inspiring young minorities across the country with her story of grit and determination.
Cooper is inspiring others at a young age. On top of being the first active-duty soldier with the Miss USA title, Cooper said she's most proud of where she comes from.
“My mom was a migrant worker growing up in the beet fields of Idaho. At the age of six, she was hoeing beets and she did that all the way up and through high school and then earned her way to a division 1 track scholarship at Idaho State University," Cooper said.
Her mother's humble beginnings, as well as her own, pushed to achieve excellence every day.
“For me, I always want to fill her footsteps and continue to lead a path for other young women behind me," she said.
Cooper said her father, who is now retired from the Army, is equally as inspiring.
“I remember when I was younger I saw my dad in a uniform and I never really saw women in the military," she said. "Women who were both feminine and also pursuing a male-dominated field.”
This week, she sat down to read books to children at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit.
"Any time I can be of service to anyone, regardless of what time of the year it is, I want to help other people out there be inspired to hopefully see a piece of themselves in my story," Cooper said.
'Congestion nightmare': Residents understanding, yet nervous over I-696 project at public meeting
To get the Oakland County community prepared for the massive I-696 construction project that will affect the interstate from Lahser Road to I-75, the Michigan Department of Transportation hosted an informational meeting in Oak Park Tuesday.
Residents showed up in droves with questions and concerns.
“It’s going to affect me for the next two years. I take that road all the time, almost on a daily basis," Oak Park resident Sandra Gross said.
MDOT construction engineers and planners were in attendance at Temple Emanu-El on W. 10 Mile Road to help answer questions.
“Starting March 1, we are detouring Eastbound 696 for two straight years. Obviously, that’s going to be very impactful to motorists," MDOT construction engineer Brian Travis said. “This pavement is almost 40 years old, so it’s time that it’s addressed. We pour a lot of money into this year after year trying to maintain it.”
MDOT clarified that both sides of the interstate will be fixed, but I-696 is not shutting down completely. Westbound drivers will always be able to get through, regardless of which side of the freeway MDOT crews are working on. However, when it comes to Eastbound drivers, a lengthy detour that goes all the way down to Highland Park awaits.
"I will never take that detour — that is completely inconvenient," Gross said. "I will be taking the mile roads.”
Gross is not the only resident saying they will skip out on the official detour. If the official detour is not taken, the mile roads around I-696 will become congested, which puts residents who live along there right in the crosshairs of the expected traffic.
News Literacy Project: How to identify misinformation amid the rise of AI content
For many of us, news and information are available at our fingertips, but so is AI-generated content.
Photos, videos, and even voice recordings. Wayne County Sheriff's Office Digital Forensics Expert Britton Foreman said right now, we're seeing more of the negative impacts of AI technology.
Related: This week National News Literacy Week, presented by The News Literacy Project, The E.W. Scripps Company, and USA Today, focuses on providing educators with the tools and resources they need to help students more skillfully navigate today’s information landscape. More about this effort and tools here: NewsLiteracyWeek.org
“School bullying right, that’s a big one. Revenge porn, that’s another big one where you see a lot of these revenge porn cases where these people they’ll go in there, they’ll doctor something that didn’t actually happen, put it out there and it looks real, but it’s not," Foreman said.
Although it can be difficult, Foreman said there are some ways you can spot AI-generated images and videos that are made to spread false information, better known as deep fakes.
In one video he showed me, you can see the skin is too perfect. Foreman also said looking closely at fingers, faces and backgrounds for anything unnatural may help you spot content that isn't real.
But whether it's for good or for bad, there's no denying that AI is going to become more prevalent in our lives, especially for teens.
Years before Na'Ziyah Harris murder case, CPS warned repeatedly about alleged killer
Years before Jarvis Butts would be charged by Wayne County’s prosecutor, accused of killing and sexually abusing Na’Ziyah Harris, relatives of the 13-year-old say they filed multiple reports with Children's Protective Services raising concerns about Butts.
A 7 News Detroit investigation finds that Butts was named in at least five CPS complaints since 2015, including one that alleged Butts had inappropriately touched Na'Ziyah Harris in 2022.
While multiple complaints alleged improper touching or raised concerns about possible molestation, none substantiated sexual abuse.
Kewana Morton and her cousin, Jernell, who asked that her last name not be used, are both relatives of Na’Ziyah.
In February of 2022, Jernell says she learned of allegations of improper touching involving Butts and other children. She says she was told about the claims while talking to her niece, Butts’ girlfriend, and that the alleged victims were Na’Ziyah and two other children.
She says she took the claims seriously, in part, because Butts was on the sex offender registry, having spent more than eight years in prison for third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
“I was like, 'oh my God. I was not crazy,” Jernell said. “This needs to be looked into.”
She held off on alerting authorities, she said, because her niece said she would report the claims to police. But weeks later, Jernell said, she alerted Child Protective Services. Her complaint came in on April 13, 2022.
“There was an incident at a birthday party,” the complaint reads. “One of the children that attended the party accused Jarvis of sexual abuse. Na’ziyah and (name withheld) reported that Jarvis touched both of them inappropriately as well. Jarvis touched (name withheld) in her private area and it hurt.”
Jernell made the complaint over the phone.
“They basically told me if they needed me for anything else, they would reach out,” she said, adding that she was not contacted by CPS again.
The next day, Jernell would receive a text from her niece – Butts’ girlfriend – confirming that she’d been contacted by CPS.
“CPS called me,” the text reads. “They called about the well-being of my kids…then they called back to get Jarvis info.”
A CPS spokeswoman wouldn’t tell 7 News Detroit if investigators ever questioned Na’Zaiyah Harris about the allegations that she was touched, or whether they notified police, citing state and federal law.
But it wasn’t the only CPS complaint naming Jarvis Butts.
Kewana Morton said she heard about the same allegations against Butts, from a conversation with his girlfriend. Two months after her cousin’s call to CPS, she filed her own complaint.
“I told them that there’s a problem and they need to be aware of it. I’m 90% sure that there’s sexual abuse going on within the home,” Morton said.
“Did you specifically mention Jarvis by name?” asked Channel 7’s Ross Jones.
“Yes, absolutely,” she replied.
Internal CPS records obtained by 7 News Detroit show that investigators looked into a complaint in June of 2022, conducting a face-to-face interview with Butts, who strongly denied the allegation.
A forensic interview was conducted with the alleged victim and “no disclosures” were made, records show. CPS said the home was clean and free of observed safety concerns. The allegation was denied and assigned a “low risk level.”
It’s one of at least five complaints filed with CPS naming Jarvis Butts since 2015, according to records obtained by 7 News Detroit. The complaints allege concerns about possible molestation, physical abuse or living conditions.
Many of the complaints were generic and none substantiated that Butts was improperly touching children.
Just over a year after the last complaint on record, Jarvis Butts would be charged with sexually assaulting and murdering Na’Ziyah Harris.
“I’m brokenhearted, because this could have been prevented. All of it,” Morton said. “All of it could have been prevented.”
In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services said: “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Na'Ziyah Harris. While we can’t discuss specific cases due to state and federal laws, MDHHS is deeply committed to ensuring the health and safety of all children.”
Attorneys for Jarvis Butts declined to comment on the prior complaints filed against him, citing Butts’ ongoing criminal case.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
WXYZ-TV giving 20K books to kids this year through 'If You Give A Child A Book' campaign
One of the greatest predictors of a child’s success is books in the home.
Employees at WXYZ-TV and TV-20 Detroit, along with the Scripps Howard Foundation, have made it their mission to get high-quality books to children in our community through the "If You Give A Child A Book" campaign.
This past summer, WXYZ-TV and TV-20 Detroit did a call-out for donations from employees and the community. With those collected funds and with a matching contribution from the Scripps Howard Foundation, we are able to give more than 20,000 books to children in the community this year.
“It does get bigger and better every year, and I can't think of a better way to start the year out than with our 'If You Give A Child A Book' campaign,” said Mike Murri, WXYZ-TV & WMYD-TV20 Detroit vice president and general manager. “Because of the generosity from our community, our employees, we're able to start this year out by distributing over 20,000 new, age-appropriate books to children in metro Detroit — and the need has never been greater. The impact is tremendous, it's transformative for these children.”
The book giveaway events started in February with a kickoff book drive on February 4 at Pepper Elementary in Oak Park. Each student was able to pick out five brand new books.
In addition to the book fair giveaways, Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of the kid-favorite Dog Man series, is also gifting 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students of selected schools participating in the Scripps Howard Fund’s If You Give A Child A Book program a copy of Dog Man: Big Jim Begins.
Students at Schickler Elementary had quite the fun day in January when they received their copies.
