Month: January 2026

By Cyera Williams

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    HARFORD COUNTY, Maryland (WMAR) — When Army veteran Justin Garrity left the military, the transition home was anything but smooth.

“I did five years of active duty as a combat engineer officer and then five years in the National Guard and went to all the fun places Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, all the places everyone wants to visit,” Garrity said.

After ten years of service, including earning a Bronze Star in Iraq, Garrity returned home to Maryland during the height of the economic downturn. Despite his leadership experience and military training, he found himself unable to secure a job.

“So my transition out of the military is not great,” he said.

In December 2008, Garrity received one of the military’s highest honors. Just six months later, his circumstances had drastically changed.

“In December of 2008, I got a Bronze Star in Iraq and six months later I was on unemployment back here at home,” he said.

The sudden shift from success in uniform to unemployment left Garrity feeling disconnected and discouraged.

“It was disappointing obviously to go from success in the military to not success or being kind of out of work and kind of feeling like no value,” he said.

Rather than staying stuck, Garrity began looking for something meaningful he could build on his own. Sustainability had always interested him, even though it wasn’t something he grew up practicing.

“I didn’t grow up in like a super hippie family. I didn’t eat organic food. I grew up a normal family in Columbia, Maryland near the mall,” Garrity said. “But I just always thought like waste was really a weird problem that we have all this material and we just throw it away.”

That curiosity turned into research and eventually, a business plan. Garrity learned that roughly two-thirds of the material in Maryland trash trucks could be composted rather than thrown away.

“Two-thirds of what’s in every trash truck in Maryland is compostable,” he said.

In 2010, Garrity founded Veteran Compost, launching the company with no customers and limited support. He found a farm property through Craigslist, signed a lease, and took a chance.

“It was either a great opportunity or going to be a huge mistake,” he said. “Thankfully it worked out.”

Now headquartered in Aberdeen, Veteran Compost collects food scraps from residential, commercial, and food manufacturing customers across the state. The material—including food waste, compostable products, and even crab shells, is processed on-site and turned into usable compost in about 90 to 100 days.

“We accept any kind of food, even the stuff you wouldn’t do in your backyard, so meat, dairy, bones,” Garrity said. “Our piles are 140 degrees, breaking things down.”

The work is demanding and far from glamorous, something Garrity readily acknowledges.

“The business Maryland veteran business is not easy. Now, if I had to do it over again, I don’t know that I would,” he said. “But we’re here now.”

What keeps the company going, he says, is the people—many of whom share a connection to military service. Veteran Compost currently employs 35 people, about half of them veterans or family members.

“The whole reason this started was my trouble finding work,” Garrity said. “Our goal every day is to try to hire veterans and family members of veterans.”

Garrity believes the mindset he developed in the Army continues to guide him through the challenges of running a business.

“I think like that never quitting thing is probably the thing that kicks in the most,” he said. “There’s a fine line between being stubborn and dedicated, and I think we’re somewhere in the middle.”

For veterans struggling to find their footing after leaving the military, Garrity offers practical advice drawn from his own experience.

“I think that sometimes people come out of the military and they’re only looking in that lane that they were in in the military,” he said. “You got to look at the skills you have from leadership and experiences in the military and think broadly.”

15 years after its founding, Veteran Compost continues to expand its capacity around the Baltimore region, turning food waste into soil, and setbacks into opportunity.

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 Cameron Polom

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    PHOENIX, Arizona (KNXV) — For decades, a south Phoenix neighborhood kept asking for the same simple thing: a sidewalk. And for decades, the answer kept coming back — “no” — not because neighbors opposed it, but because silence counted against them in the city’s process. Now, after years of persistence and one critical tweak to the process, that long fight is finally paying off.

This week, the first stretch of sidewalk was completed right in front of 90-year-old Ms. Lottie Lecian’s home, a woman who’s been part of the push since the very beginning.

It’s a milestone moment for a community that refused to give up, even when the system made progress nearly impossible.

Neighbors organized through People United Fight Back, gathered petitions, and worked with the city to change a rule that once treated non-responses to neighborhood improvement projects as an automatic “no.” Once that became an automatic “yes,” a decades-long stalemate turned into real, visible change.

This is a story about patience, persistence, and what happens when a community keeps showing up long enough to reshape the rules and make their neighborhood safer for everyone.

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 Lauren Pozen

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — Security cameras captured the moment a North Hollywood laundromat owner and her employees fought back against a robbery suspect. Vardan Kostanyan, who owns Laundry King with his wife, said the suspect walked into their laundromat on Tuesday and demanded the keys to their safe before attacking his wife. “He was just yelling, screaming, pushing, hitting my employees, including my wife,” Kostanyan said. As the suspect shoves her around, security cameras showed Kostanyan’s wife grab a laundry cart to shield herself as an employee stands close behind her. Seconds later, more employees rush in and slam the cart into the suspect to force him off her. “My other employee pepper-sprayed him and he was already trying to run out while the police were coming in,” Kostanyan said. “They were able to arrest him right outside.”

Kostanyan said he hired a daytime guard last year after a similar incident, but plans to increase the security even more after the attempted robbery.

“We need more cops,” Kostanyan said. “We need more patrols.”

Kostanyan said his wife is recovering at home. No one else was hurt.

The Los Angeles Police Department said they arrested the suspect after he was taken to the hospital.

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 Jesse Sarles

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    LITTLETON, Colorado (KCNC) — Littleton Public Schools is settling a lawsuit brought by three families for $3 million. It stems from a Littleton bus aide who pleaded guilty to abusing children with autism in 2024.

Kiarra Jones was caught on video in April 2024 hitting a non-verbal student while on the bus. Attorneys for the victims’ families say there were three boys who were abused.

Following the settlement, CBS Colorado received a statement from Jessica Vestal, the mother of one of the victims. It said, in part, “I want to express sincere gratitude to Superintendent Todd Lambert, Deputy Superintendent Melissa Cooper, and board member Lindley McCrary for recognizing the urgency of this situation and acting swiftly.”

It went on to say “We have already begun building a model that other districts can learn from — one that affirms disabled children are worthy of safety, dignity, and protection equal to any other child.”

The settlement will be paid for by the district’s insurance. It says there will be no impact on educational services to students.

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 Lisa Rozner

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Luigi Mangione, accused in the December 2024 murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is expected to appear in federal court on Friday.

The hearing, which Judge Margaret Garnett said will be brief, is designed to determine whether Mangione’s backpack was lawfully searched when he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Judge Garnett said the hearing will be, “about the established or standardized procedures in use by the Department in December 2024 for securing, safeguarding, and, if applicable, inventorying the personal property of a person arrested in a public place.” The defense argues it was a warrantless search, and has asked the judge to suppress evidence found in the backpack, including a 3D-printed handgun and a loaded magazine, as well as a notebook, map and “survival kit.”

In a lengthy evidentiary hearing in his state trial, Altoona police officers involved in the search of his backpack testified it was their standard procedure to recover property like a backpack from a suspect at the time of his arrest, and a preliminary search of the backpack also would’ve been standard procedure.

The defense also claims Mangione was questioned before his Miranda rights were read.

The government argues everything was done appropriately.

The judge has ordered prosecutors to bring in an Altoona police officer to testify about the department’s arrest procedures, and the witness doesn’t have to be an officer who was at the scene. The order requests an officer with sufficient authority and experience.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state charges related to Thompson’s killing, which set off a nationwide manhunt. If convicted on some of the federal charges he faces, Mangione could get the death penalty.

Mangione’s defense team is also trying to get two federal counts against him, including the one that brings the possibility of the death penalty, dismissed.

Jury selection for the trial is tentatively scheduled to start in the fall.

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.