Welcome to the Weekly Roundup, where we bring you the top stories from today’s Dayton Daily News and major stories from the past week you may have missed.
This week, that includes the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton, a crippling cyberattack at Kettering Health, and a celebration of impressive area grads.
Do you have a news tip or an issue you think our reporters should look into? Contact me at Josh.Sweigart@coxinc.com, or you can use our anonymous tipline.
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NATO in Dayton
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Dayton played host to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly this week, which brought together parliamentarians from 32 nations to discuss the future of the military alliance. The event put Dayton on the world stage for the week, but also came with traffic headaches and other issues for local residents.
• The latest: Go here for our story with the latest news about the event.
• Calls for peace: To end the war in Ukraine will require moral strength and clarity of purpose, the president of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly declared as the first day of the assembly’s spring session opened Friday.
• Protests: There were several protests, particularly on Saturday, including marches around the NATO Village and a visit from the famous “Trump Baby” balloon.
• Business concerns: Downtown Dayton businesses saw some slowness with streets walled off and a large police presence downtown.
• Footing the bill: A lot of people are asking what the NATO event is costing local taxpayers. This story gets into who is paying for what.
Kettering Health cyberattack
Kettering Health was hit Tuesday with a ransomware cyberattack that severely limited the region’s largest hospital system’s ability to operate.
• Prognosis: A statement from Kettering Health CEO Mike Gentry on Friday said these types of incidents often range from 10 to 20 days in duration for health care organizations.
• Urgent clinical support line: The hospital system launched a temporary urgent clinical support line to help patients get the information they need.
• Scam alert: Kettering Health says scammers are now pretending to be from the hospital system and are calling people trying to get credit card information as payments for medical procedures.
• Patients hurt: We heard from cancer patients who had to cancel chemotherapy appointments, people left waiting indefinitely for important diagnoses, and many people afraid they can’t fill prescriptions or contact their doctors. Go here for some of their stories.
• Hospital reacts: “We understand that this has been extremely frustrating for our patients, our families and our community partners. And we have appreciated the grace that they have given us and continued to have worked with us along with our clinical teams,” John Weimer, senior vice president and leader for Incident Command at Kettering Health, said Friday in the first press conference since the attack.
• Your voices: We want to know what questions and concerns area residents have about the recent cyberattack that impacted systems at Kettering Health. Go here to share your perspective to help guide our coverage.
Student spotlight
Every year the Dayton Daily News profiles graduating seniors to celebrate their achievements. This year’s roundup from reporter Eileen McClory has some really inspiring stories.
• Dayton Public: Simeon Akins, a Paul Laurence Dunbar High School graduate, is the valedictorian of his class and loves to make music. He won the prestigious Gates Scholarship and plans to use it to study some intersection between computers, audio equipment and music at Belmont University in Nashville.
• DECA: Nicholas Gay Jr., a DECA High School graduate, also won the prestigious Gates Scholarship. He said he was terrified of the doctor as a kid and plans to attend Howard University and eventually become a pediatrician.
• Troy: Tatyana Green, the Troy High School class president, has always been involved in school activities. But after her mom abruptly died in October 2023 from complications from lupus, she stopped wanting to be active, though she was able to come back due to the support of Troy and her family.
• Oakwood: Marlow Mittelstaedt, an Oakwood High School senior, lost her dad, John Mittelstaedt, to colon cancer while she was in eighth grade. Just 30 hours before, she lost her grandma, too. The experiences led her to pursue nursing as a way to give back, she said. The Kettering Career Tech Center helped affirm that it was the best decision for her.
• Carroll: Finally, Nicolas Young, a Carroll High School senior, was a student many teachers at his school thought wouldn’t be able to finish high school because he had fallen into a bad crowd. But he made a clean break from those previous friends and is now headed to Wright State University to study engineering.