Month: January 2026

By Zach Boetto, Dean Fioresi

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    CHINO HILLS, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Ranchers in Chino Hills are voicing their frustrations over the potential dangers facing an animal sanctuary after a viral social media video led to a sudden explosion in popularity for the hiking trail nearby.

Helen McCoy Loop is a common area in Chino Hills with multiple hiking trails, including the Eucalyptus Trail. A recent video that garnered attention on TikTok, with nearly 100,000 likes and hundreds of other comments, highlights the trail and the animals one can encounter on the way.

Many of those animals belong to the Red Bucket Rescue and Sanctuary, which serves as a forever home to more than 100 horses, donkeys, ponies and other farm animals. Their caretakers say that each was saved from some form of abuse over the years.

“The environment that we create for them is one of peace and tranquility and safety,” said Susan Peirce, the president of the sanctuary.

She says that their tranquility has become a challenge in recent weeks because of that viral video, which has caused the trail to see a vast increase in popularity with families and hikers hoping to get an up-close look at the farm animals.

“We’ve had a lot of people wanting to feed the animals carrots, apples and throwing salads over the fence or scaring them,” Peirce said. “You know, thinking that it’s exciting for children to see the animals run, and that can be really dangerous for the horses and donkeys.”

She’s one of many in the community who never thought the trail would see so much attention. So much so that Chino Hills city leaders shared a trail etiquette reminder on their website and social media channels.

Additionally, ranchers in the community, including Peirce, have put up a series of educational signs to help educate families that are now visiting the area. As they work with the city to try and implement some protection for their operation, she’s hoping that those stopping by will keep the animals’ land safe.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

KCNC

By Chierstin Roth

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    FORT COLLINS, Colorado (KCNC) — As the Denver Broncos punched their ticket to the AFC Championship for the first time in a decade, two Fort Collins neighbors had an experience they’ll never forget.

“He’s always doing stuff for everybody,” said Kevin Brown. “He’s always got his garage open in the neighborhood. He’s just that kind of guy that would bend over backwards and do anything for you.”

Paul Andrews has been dubbed the neighborhood “handyman” and the neighborhood “hero” for the way he shows up for his community.

“Without asking, he just came out and started helping me shovel the driveway, because my husband was at work,” said Kinsey Brown.

Andrews is also a Broncos superfan.

“Can you see it?” Andrews asked as she showed off the Broncos tattoo on his arm.

So, when Kinsey and Kevin landed tickets to Saturday’s game against the Bills, Kinsey knew there would be someone to whom it might mean more.

“I knew that I would have more joy and I’d have more fun, like seeing him get excited about it, and I would have fun at the game itself,” said Kinsey.

“Kinsey and I just thought, ‘Paul’s the man,'” Kevin added.

The ticket was Andrews’.

“I wasn’t expecting nothing,” he said. “I just heard him knocking on the door, and he asked me, and I said, Yeah, I’ll go.”

“He was like, ‘I might have to work that day, but I’m going to call him and tell him I’m not coming to work. I’m going to that game,'” Kevin added.

CBS News Colorado caught up with the group having breakfast together before the game. Hours later, the real fun began.

“Just to get out there, support the team, be a part of Bronco nation, is what it’s all about,” said Kevin. “To go there with great company, it’s just, it’s like you couldn’t ask for a better day.”

They cheered as the Broncos kept their Super Bowl hopes alive.

“I was screaming with everybody else,” said Andrews.

“Yeah, I think we’re about losing our voice here,” Kevin added.

Still, some moments are more important than wins and losses.

“It was a blessing, just a blessing,” said Andrews.

Andrews has been to a few Broncos games over the years, but he told CBS Colorado that Saturday’s win over the Bills was by far the best.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Chierstin Roth

Click here for updates on this story

    FORT COLLINS, Colorado (KCNC) — As the Denver Broncos punched their ticket to the AFC Championship for the first time in a decade, two Fort Collins neighbors had an experience they’ll never forget.

“He’s always doing stuff for everybody,” said Kevin Brown. “He’s always got his garage open in the neighborhood. He’s just that kind of guy that would bend over backwards and do anything for you.”

Paul Andrews has been dubbed the neighborhood “handyman” and the neighborhood “hero” for the way he shows up for his community.

“Without asking, he just came out and started helping me shovel the driveway, because my husband was at work,” said Kinsey Brown.

Andrews is also a Broncos superfan.

“Can you see it?” Andrews asked as she showed off the Broncos tattoo on his arm.

So, when Kinsey and Kevin landed tickets to Saturday’s game against the Bills, Kinsey knew there would be someone to whom it might mean more.

“I knew that I would have more joy and I’d have more fun, like seeing him get excited about it, and I would have fun at the game itself,” said Kinsey.

“Kinsey and I just thought, ‘Paul’s the man,'” Kevin added.

The ticket was Andrews’.

“I wasn’t expecting nothing,” he said. “I just heard him knocking on the door, and he asked me, and I said, Yeah, I’ll go.”

“He was like, ‘I might have to work that day, but I’m going to call him and tell him I’m not coming to work. I’m going to that game,'” Kevin added.

CBS News Colorado caught up with the group having breakfast together before the game. Hours later, the real fun began.

“Just to get out there, support the team, be a part of Bronco nation, is what it’s all about,” said Kevin. “To go there with great company, it’s just, it’s like you couldn’t ask for a better day.”

They cheered as the Broncos kept their Super Bowl hopes alive.

“I was screaming with everybody else,” said Andrews.

“Yeah, I think we’re about losing our voice here,” Kevin added.

Still, some moments are more important than wins and losses.

“It was a blessing, just a blessing,” said Andrews.

Andrews has been to a few Broncos games over the years, but he told CBS Colorado that Saturday’s win over the Bills was by far the best.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Conor Wight

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Hani Duglof and his brother Mohamad Duklef arrived in Minnesota looking for help in 2014. They’d left Libya, unable to find relief for a rare condition that threatens to leave their skin torn and blistered at even the slightest provocation.

After spending more than a decade studying, working and participating in clinical trials, Duglof found himself detained by ICE, unable to access the kind of food and care he needs.

The brothers say that it happened on Jan. 10 of this year. Duglof was driving in Wisconsin when he said that two ICE vehicles pulled him over. Duklef was on the phone with him, expecting a call back soon, assuming he had been pulled over for some kind of driving infraction.

Instead, Duglof found himself being taken to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling. He said that he was confused when ICE agents said that he no longer had legal status, given that he had been in the asylum process for the better part of a decade after first entering the country on a visitor visa.

“Since they handcuffed me, I felt like (I was) being treated like a criminal,” Duglof said. “They tried to take my fingerprints, but because of my condition, I don’t have fingerprints.”

Duglof and his brother have Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB. Their skin is extremely fragile, causing it to tear easily. The condition also affects the esophagus, meaning Duglof can only eat soft foods. He said that the cramped concrete rooms of the Whipple building immediately caused his skin to blister.

Medical documents he says came from M Health Fairview Southdale’s emergency department show that officials at the Whipple eventually believed he needed additional care, taking him to the hospital after Duglof said he was at the Whipple building for about 13 hours. Doctors in the documents seem to note that Duglof was not in need of emergency medical attention, but recorded the fact that the agents who brought him to the hospital were concerned that they could not provide food that he could actually eat.

Duglof soon found himself back at the Whipple building regardless. He said that, at one point, he was placed in a room with standing water in the corner. Often, he said, his pleas for soft food were ignored.

“‘I’m sorry, this isn’t a five-star hotel,'” Duglof said one official told him.

Duklef said he had been working from the get-go with Duglof’s lawyer, the same lawyer who had been working on his asylum case for years, to get him released. He was freed on bond on Jan. 15, with a court case pending in February related to his asylum case. Duklef said that he often hears, or late, that people want immigrants to come in the right way; he said his brother was doing just that.

“Hani followed every single process legally,” Duklef said.

Duglof works as an IT specialist after studying at Saint Paul College, and was featured in school promotional material on a billboard and other advertisements. He said he’s nervous about returning to Libya, first applying for asylum after the country descended into civil war.

Duglof is one of the reported 2,500 people ICE said the agency has detained since the start of Operation Metro Surge in early December. The Department of Homeland Security and its leadership have repeatedly stated that the operation is targeting criminals who are in the country illegally. While the agency has listed dozens of names of people convicted of past crimes, hundreds of people are not publicly listed, nor are their alleged offenses.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

WBBM

By Edie Kasten, Irika Sargent

Click here for updates on this story

    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Helping people make the move from incarceration to inspiration. It’s all happening in a sweet way in North Lawndale.

The folks at Sweet Beginnings are busy as bees, producing skin care products made from honey.

Sweet Beginnings is a social impact business headquartered at the North Lawndale Employment Network.

Its staff has turned their lives around, spending their days at work after doing their time in prison. The goal is to help them achieve self-reliance and self-worth.

“What I want for people who come through our program is, first of all, to know they matter; that they have made a mistake, but they aren’t their mistake. It was a moment, it was a poor decision, but they have paid the price for that,” said president and CEO Brenda Palms.

Sweet Beginnings production specialist and trainer Charlotte Austin is at the top of her game. It’s a big win after a long journey.

“I’m thinking they ain’t going to help me, but they did. Look where I’m at today,” she said.

In December 1996, Charlotte was arrested on bank robbery charges.

“They dropped four, I pleaded guilty to five,” she said. “I got 30 years. I did 20.”

After she got out of prison, Charlotte’s sister, Elaine, told her about Sweet Beginnings. Charlotte got a spot in the training program called “U-turn Permitted.”

She remembers when she got the call.

“‘You start Monday, you’ve got to be here at 8 o’clock.’ I’m there. I was there at 7, because I was excited and it was something positive,” she said.

Her first assignment was at a small apiary, or beehive collection. Her coach, Jose Wilson, taught Charlotte about bees and much more.

“Jose taught me deal with my attitude. ‘Why you always mad? The world didn’t make you angry.’ He taught me how to talk to people,” she added. “He taught me how to deal with Charlotte.”

Sweet Beginnings has hired more than 1,000 people, helping them build new lives. It began in 2004, with the simple question: how do we get people back to work?

“After a whole host of really, really, really bad ideas, a friend of mine – actually, she served on the board at the time – and she said, ‘You know, I have a friend who’s a beekeeper,'” Brenda said.

So Brenda set out to get the buzz.

“Beekeeping is passed on through coaching. There’s a mentorship relationship there,” she said. “You can learn on the job, right? So I thought, ‘Hmm, that might work.'”

The first bees were bought with a seed grant from the Illinois Department of Corrections, and everything blossomed from there.

“We entered into Whole Foods in 2006. We’re also in Mariano’s,” Brenda said. “Our largest apiary’s actually at O’Hare Airport, which is one of the first in the country.”

Another North Lawndale Employment Network program is the beelove café, which sells locally sourced coffees, teas, pastries, and quick lunch bites.

Many of the people who work at the café live in North Lawndale, a community eager to fight misconceptions.

“People see that we have a high unemployment rate there and make the automatic assumption that, ‘Oh, those people don’t want to work,'” Brenda said. “I can assure you that is not what I have learned, that is not what I have witnessed.”

She said there are many reasons someone might not work, from medical problems to mental health issues, in addition to the stigma of a criminal record.

For Charlotte, that stigma has slowly eased, as she now helps trainees learn the art, craft, and business of bees.

“When the participants come, and I tell them, ‘Good job, you did that,’ they smile. Because they probably never hear ‘good job’ or ‘thank you,'” she said. “They need help and love. I can give it to them.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Edie Kasten, Irika Sargent

Click here for updates on this story

    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Helping people make the move from incarceration to inspiration. It’s all happening in a sweet way in North Lawndale.

The folks at Sweet Beginnings are busy as bees, producing skin care products made from honey.

Sweet Beginnings is a social impact business headquartered at the North Lawndale Employment Network.

Its staff has turned their lives around, spending their days at work after doing their time in prison. The goal is to help them achieve self-reliance and self-worth.

“What I want for people who come through our program is, first of all, to know they matter; that they have made a mistake, but they aren’t their mistake. It was a moment, it was a poor decision, but they have paid the price for that,” said president and CEO Brenda Palms.

Sweet Beginnings production specialist and trainer Charlotte Austin is at the top of her game. It’s a big win after a long journey.

“I’m thinking they ain’t going to help me, but they did. Look where I’m at today,” she said.

In December 1996, Charlotte was arrested on bank robbery charges.

“They dropped four, I pleaded guilty to five,” she said. “I got 30 years. I did 20.”

After she got out of prison, Charlotte’s sister, Elaine, told her about Sweet Beginnings. Charlotte got a spot in the training program called “U-turn Permitted.”

She remembers when she got the call.

“‘You start Monday, you’ve got to be here at 8 o’clock.’ I’m there. I was there at 7, because I was excited and it was something positive,” she said.

Her first assignment was at a small apiary, or beehive collection. Her coach, Jose Wilson, taught Charlotte about bees and much more.

“Jose taught me deal with my attitude. ‘Why you always mad? The world didn’t make you angry.’ He taught me how to talk to people,” she added. “He taught me how to deal with Charlotte.”

Sweet Beginnings has hired more than 1,000 people, helping them build new lives. It began in 2004, with the simple question: how do we get people back to work?

“After a whole host of really, really, really bad ideas, a friend of mine – actually, she served on the board at the time – and she said, ‘You know, I have a friend who’s a beekeeper,'” Brenda said.

So Brenda set out to get the buzz.

“Beekeeping is passed on through coaching. There’s a mentorship relationship there,” she said. “You can learn on the job, right? So I thought, ‘Hmm, that might work.'”

The first bees were bought with a seed grant from the Illinois Department of Corrections, and everything blossomed from there.

“We entered into Whole Foods in 2006. We’re also in Mariano’s,” Brenda said. “Our largest apiary’s actually at O’Hare Airport, which is one of the first in the country.”

Another North Lawndale Employment Network program is the beelove café, which sells locally sourced coffees, teas, pastries, and quick lunch bites.

Many of the people who work at the café live in North Lawndale, a community eager to fight misconceptions.

“People see that we have a high unemployment rate there and make the automatic assumption that, ‘Oh, those people don’t want to work,'” Brenda said. “I can assure you that is not what I have learned, that is not what I have witnessed.”

She said there are many reasons someone might not work, from medical problems to mental health issues, in addition to the stigma of a criminal record.

For Charlotte, that stigma has slowly eased, as she now helps trainees learn the art, craft, and business of bees.

“When the participants come, and I tell them, ‘Good job, you did that,’ they smile. Because they probably never hear ‘good job’ or ‘thank you,'” she said. “They need help and love. I can give it to them.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.