Month: January 2026

By Elyssa Kaufman

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    BEACH PARK, Illinois (WBBM) — Guns, cocaine and nearly $500,000 were found after the arrest of a man wanted in a home invasion in Beach Park on Thursday night, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Lake County officials, deputies responded to a home invasion in the 38200 block of Sheridan Road on Thursday just after 8 p.m. and found a 67-year-old victim with serious wounds to the face and body.

The victim was taken to a local hospital.

Officials said the victim initially told deputies he was at his home when a former neighbor, identified as Brian Wisch, 47, broke into his home through the glass door and demanded money.

The victim said Wisch hit him with a pistol before leaving.

After searching, sheriff’s detectives located Wisch at a business in the 16400 block of Russell Road on Friday. When detectives located Wisch, they learned he had a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Sheriff’s detectives later learned that the victim shot Wisch during the home invasion. Officials said there was a physical struggle between the two.

Sheriff’s detectives discovered the victim was selling drugs out of his residence, and a search warrant was obtained. Detectives recovered nearly two pounds of cocaine and approximately $500,000.

Sheriff’s detectives confirmed both firearms were recovered.

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Wisch with three felony counts of home invasion, two felony counts of armed robbery and a felony count of unlawful use of a weapon. He was expected in court on Saturday morning.

Officials said “drug-related charges against the victim are likely in the future.”

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 Gabriela Vidal

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    DENVER (KCNC) — Police are searching for a suspect in an attack on a jogger that happened in Denver on Wednesday. While the attack was going on, a good Samaritan says he stepped in and stopped it from being a worse attack.

“I just remember her screaming ‘help’ and that’s scary to think about,” said Jaxon, who asked for his last name not to be used.

Denver police say the attack happened after 5 p.m. on Lincoln Street near Louisiana Avenue.

Jaxon said the terrifying moment has played in his head over and over. He was finishing his nightly exercise in the Platt Park neighborhood when up ahead he saw a female runner who had passed by him earlier. She was on the ground and she was screaming.

“I start jogging, as I’m getting closer I see there’s another person,” he said. “I then realize there was a man attacking this one lady, on top of her, strangling her. She was pretty helpless when I saw her.”

Jaxon said he took action right away.

“At that point, I scream, ‘Hey,’ really loud to scare the guy,” he said. “He then sees me, instantly sees me, gets off her, darts at me.”

At that point Jaxon says he became the target of the attacker.

“She runs away and at that point he tries to attack me. I unfortunately had to strike at him, knock him down, throw him down to some neighbor’s front yard, which at that point I was able to run up to the girl and make sure she was okay,” he said.

The attacker then ran off while Jaxon told the woman to get help.

“I couldn’t really get a good read on him, it all happened so quick. (He) definitely had bad intentions,” Jaxon said.

After the incident, the victim ran to Adelitas Cocina Y Cantina on Broadway to get help. On the restaurant’s back patio workers say they saw the woman come up covered with blood.

“I’m just very grateful I was there at that time to stop anything from progressing to much worse. I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened,” he said.

Denver police say they are working to contact nearby businesses or homes that might have video from the time of the incident. They also say they are planning to increase patrols in the area.

“It’s scary for everyday people in Denver that there’s someone out there committing these acts of crime,” Jaxon said.

For now, Jaxon says he’s putting his nightly running routine on hold.

“I’ve kind of always checked my surroundings every now and then because stuff like this is possible, it’s rare, but it does happen. But it’s hard not to be careful after witnessing something like that,” he said.

And it’s a reminder for others to be more alert when people are in need.

“Because I know that it’s pretty easy to walk away from something like that if it’s not your business, but you never know when you might’ve saved someone’s life,” he said.

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 Kayla Moeller

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    CALIFORNIA (KOVR) — Current drought maps are showing California is drought-free for the first time in 25 years.

The U.S. Drought Monitor climatologists put out a weekly map assessing drought conditions across the country. This week’s map continues to show zero drought conditions across the whole state of California.

“This is the first time we have seen that since December of 2000. It’s been quite a while since there’s been no abnormally dry conditions or worse being depicted in the state,” said Brian Fuchs, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The map shows that much of the rest of the country is experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions.

“When we start looking at California, the first map that actually had no drought depicted in the state on the U.S. Monitor was the map on the week of Dec. 9. That was where we had zero drought, but we did have a little under 9% of the state that is abnormally dry. Since that time, we’ve knocked down that abnormally dry with the continued wet pattern, so now we have no abnormally dry, no drought being depicted on the U.S. Drought Monitor map,” Fuchs said.

“This water year that started Oct. 1, we got off to a great start. We’ve seen regular storms work their way through over the months and in the first quarter of the water year, as we rounded into the new calendar year, we’re at about 150% of average for precipitation,” said Michael Anderson, a state climatologist with the California Department of Water Resources.

Our first alert weather team says this 2025-2026 season is considered to be a La Niña year, and for California, that usually means drier conditions.

“But this year is an anomaly. We’re seeing the storms form right off the coast of California, so they’re coming right in and inundating the state from north to south, so we’ve had this heavy, steady rain that has continued,” meteorologist Kristine Hanson said.

That steady rain has also helped refill California’s reservoirs, with 14 of the 17 major ones at 70% or more capacity.

But that doesn’t mean these conditions are here to stay. Climatologists say we’re in a wait-and-see period to see how the rest of winter goes and what things look like come fire season.

“That back and forth is something California is well accustomed to,” Anderson said. “We’ll see then, as we get into February and March, when they start the growth cycle, if there’s continued moisture to allow for that and then fire season begins when those grasses begin to dry out.”

“The next week or so is supposed to be fairly dry and warm as well, so again, as quickly as we’ve seen these dry situations get tampered down and relieved, they could be developing again,” Fuchs said.

The Climate Prediction Center is projecting California to stay drought-free through the end of March, but they’re coming out with their monthly update next week, so we’ll see if those projections continue through April and into spring.

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 Mia Bearden

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    MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — A Milwaukee family is grieving after a crash on the city’s south side killed a 29-year-old father a month before his wedding.

D’Monte Owens was killed Wednesday night, Jan. 7, near 76th and Morgan, just a few blocks from his home.

His sister-in-law, Savannah Lee, says Owens had just left the house when the crash happened.

“He just left to run and go get dog food, that’s all he was doing,” Lee said. “I don’t know if he was going to Walmart or what, but he barely made it 5 minutes down the road.

Owens was a father to a three-year-old daughter and was preparing to get married next month. Lee says the reality of his death still hasn’t settled in.

“This whole thing has just been extremely hard,” Lee said.

Lee says Owens walked out the door around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday night. Milwaukee police say the crash happened around 7:20 p.m.

Police say a 21-year-old driver was traveling south on 76th Street when the vehicle hit Owens’ car and spun out. That driver was taken into custody. Owens was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.

Crash near 76th and Morgan in Milwaukee anino’s Restaurant For Owens’ family, the loss is felt not only in their day-to-day lives, but in the future plans he and his fiancée were counting down to.

“They were planning on getting married in Jamaica next month and they were looking forward to that,” Lee said. “He has never gotten to see my sister in her wedding dress so that was really hard.”

Lee says crashes like this are becoming more common and hopes Owens’ story makes drivers slow down and pay attention.

“I’ve always been an advocate for safe driving,” Lee said. “It’s frustrating and concerning. Attention needs to be brought to it.”

As the family plans Owens’ funeral, they are leaning on support from the community. A Meal Train has been set up to help Owens’ fiancée and daughter. The family has also created an official Venmo account to help cover funeral costs.

The family says anyone who wants to support them or add to the memorial at the crash site is welcome to do so.

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.