Month: February 2026

By Elijah Skipper

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    NORTH CAROLINA (WLOS) — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said Friday he spoke directly with President Donald Trump at the White House, urging him to support an additional $13.5 billion in federal funding to help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene.

Stein’s face-to-face with Trump came one day after the National Governors Association pulled out of facilitating its annual White House meeting following Trump’s refusal to invite two Democratic governors, including Jared Polis and Wes Moore.

Despite the controversy, Stein attended Friday’s meeting with a bipartisan group of governors and said he used the opportunity to press federal leaders on Helene recovery.

“I just left the White House with a bipartisan group of governors,” Stein said in an interview. He said he met with cabinet officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation — agencies central to rebuilding efforts in Western North Carolina.

Stein said he thanked Trump for what he called renewed federal focus on debris removal, noting that more than 16 million cubic yards of storm debris have already been cleared.

“It’s just an incredible amount,” Stein said. “But once you’ve kind of cleaned the site, you now have to rebuild.”

The governor said he told Trump that thousands of homes, businesses and private roads across western North Carolina still need repairs.

“I said, North Carolina needs more help,” Stein said. “Honestly, Mr. President, we need another 13 and a half billion dollars.”

Stein said Trump assured him the administration would “take a hard look” at the request.

Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $60 billion in damage across western North Carolina, according to state officials. Stein said the scale of destruction far exceeds what residents or the state can cover alone.

“The people of Western North Carolina can’t afford that,” Stein said. “The state of North Carolina, even though there’s more we can do, we can’t afford all of it. That’s why we need our federal government partners.”

Stein said securing direct access to the president has been a priority as recovery continues nearly a year after the storm.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, and western North Carolina is not going to recover in a day,” he said. “I’m going to keep pressing the case until we get the job done.” When asked whether Trump appeared receptive, Stein said the president’s previous visits to the region helped convey the severity of the disaster.

“President Trump has been to Western North Carolina at least twice since the storm,” Stein said. “He actually has laid eyes on it.”

Stein said Trump described the unique scale of damage to other governors in the room.

“He was explaining just how broad it was and how devastating it was because he’s seen it,” Stein said. “I think he now understands that there’s a lot more work to get done.”

The meeting unfolded amid broader tensions between the White House and state leaders, after the National Governors Association withdrew from organizing the event over Trump’s exclusion of Polis and Moore.

Still, Stein said Friday’s discussions remained focused on recovery needs, emphasizing that debris removal marks only the first phase of rebuilding.

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 Alex Orenczuk

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    LEE COUNTY, Florida (WFTX) — Florida Fish and Wildlife said 18 manatees were removed from Manatee Park in Fort Myers on Thursday. Those manatees were part of the 25 total deaths reported in Lee County from Feb. 13-18.

All known manatee carcasses have now been recovered, according to FWC. The agency said necropsies were performed on some animals, and all carcasses have been disposed of.

“Initial observations suggest cold stress may be a contributing factor,” FWC said.

Manatee Park in Fort Myers was used as a staging site for recovery operations, removing the carcasses reported in the Orange River and surrounding areas of Fort Myers, according to wildlife officials.

This is a developing story.

ORIGINAL REPORT:

Multiple manatees were found dead Thursday morning at Manatee Park in Fort Myers, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The park was closed Thursday morning as crews removed the manatees from the water, and the park reopened Thursday afternoon.

FWC said it has seen an increase in reports of dead manatees in the Orange River and surrounding areas. A spokesperson told Fox 4 that between Feb. 13 and Feb. 18, approximately 25 manatee deaths were reported in Lee County.

FWC said initial observations suggest cold stress may be a contributing factor, but the investigation is ongoing.

According to numbers posted earlier this week by FWC, 18 manatees had died in Lee County since January 1 of this year.

There have been 85 deaths in the state of Florida this year.

In 2025 there were 632 manatee deaths reported, a large majority of those were not necropsied, but 33 of those were from cold stress.

FWC asks anyone who sees an injured, distressed, or deceased manatee to report it to the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) so trained responders can assist.

Behavioral Zoologist ‘Ranger’ Rob Howell said the number of dead manatees is “off the charts.” He said recent cold snaps could have played a role.

“If these animals got cold, they’re very susceptible to cold stress. Even thought they look big and round they only have an inch of fat over their entire body,” Howell said. “And water under 70’s to 68 degrees can kill them, very quickly in fact.”

Pollution in the Caloosahatchee River has forced manatees to travel far away for food, Howell said. Manatees in the Orange River sometimes go through Matlacha Pass to the barrier islands for sea grass, Howell said. That journey can take more than a day.

Recently, starvation has been the leading killer of manatees, Howell said. Nonprofits and education groups have partnered to monitor the health of Southwest Florida’s sea grass, which has dropped significantly in places like Charlotte Harbor.

Manatees need to eat 10% of their body weight in vegetation every day, Howell said.

“If they’re not getting that, they’re not going to survive,” Howell 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 Zachary Bynum

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WUPA) — Civil rights attorney Ben Crump stood alongside attorney Liza Park and a grieving mother Thursday to demand accountability in the death of 21-year-old Je’vion Benham inside a Georgia state prison.

Benham was in the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections at Valdosta State Prison when he was found dead in what attorneys described as a solitary confinement cell on Christmas Eve 2025.

According to Crump, Benham had been dead for two days before his body was discovered.

“The Department of Corrections had a fiduciary and constitutional duty to keep this 21-year-old son safe,” Crump said. “Instead, his body was discovered after being left there for over two days.”

“He was faceless when they discovered him” Crump cited the Lowndes County coroner’s findings, stating that decomposition had progressed so severely that Benham’s face was unrecognizable.

“How is it that you’re in the care and custody of the state of Georgia and you cannot keep a proper count to discover that a young man is dead for over two days?” Crump asked.

Attorneys say Benham was expected to be released in the near future.

Attorney Liza Park said their investigation is ongoing, but outlined what she described as critical failures inside the prison system.

According to Park, Benham had requested solitary confinement out of safety concerns. Instead, she says, he was placed in a cell with another inmate who had been incarcerated since the 1990s and was allegedly affiliated with the “Ghost Face Gang,” which she described as a white supremacist prison gang founded in Georgia.

Park said the two inmates were assigned to different “tiers” — classifications designed to separate individuals based on behavior and security risk — and should never have been housed together.

“That alone was a huge mistake,” Park said, adding that combining a young Black inmate with a known white supremacist gang member created a “foreseeable” risk.

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 Casey Bennett

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    FULTON (KOMU) — Lorenzo Powell and his grandfather, Don Glover, are keeping their over century and a half family tradition of cattle farming going.

“The way I see it is nobody’s going to stop eating hamburgers, so cows are always going to be in demand,” Powell said.

Powell’s fondness for his family Fulton cattle farm has been around as long as he can remember.

“Ever since I was maybe 2 or 3 years old when I was old enough to say cow, that’s the only thing I was crazy about, wanting to be with my grandfather on the farm with the cows,” Powell said.

This love was instilled in him by his grandfather. The two of them still work on the farm together today. While Glover is in his 80s, he says the farm keeps him young.

“This is my pharmacy out here, what little work I do,” Glover said. “The exercise I get beats bad medicines for pains and arthritis and what have you.”

While the duo has a farm full of healthy cattle, it may be their passion and strong dedication that has kept the farm from experiencing the same fate as so many other farms across both Missouri and the country.

According to a University of Missouri study, the number of cattle farms in Missouri has gone from 72,236 in 1997 to 43,543 by 2022.

And according to a 2025 U.S. Department of Agriculture study, the number of small family farms across the county has declined 8% since 2017.

Powell is able to keep his family farm running while having a full-time job in Columbia. He said the farm wouldn’t be able to fully support him and his family on its own.

However, that doesn’t take away from the pride he takes in the farm’s survival.

“We’ve withstood the test of time, as far as the glover family is concerned, and we don’t have any aspiration of going anywhere anytime soon,” Powell said.

The farm has been in the family for six generations. Powell and Glover’s desire to keep it there is paramount.

Glover’s great great grandfather was a slave, and after being enslaved, he became the original owner of the family farm back in 1866.

With this in mind, Glover is happy he can pass this farm down to his grandson.

“I’m glad to have him interested in it and to see him come down here to help me,” Glover said.

Even though Powell plans to one day have the farm to himself, he cherishes still being able to work alongside his grandfather.

“Being 84 years old still getting around and you know, doing this just for something to do, it warms my heart a little bit about it,” Powell said. “Just the fact that he’s done this all his life, and, you know, he still has the momentum and drive to continue it.”

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 JT Moodee Lockman

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    BALTIMORE, Maryland (WJZ) — Baltimore Sheriff’s deputies helped rescue 65 reptiles from a home after their owner died, officials said.

Deputies and Animal Service officials retrieved the snakes, turtles, lizards, and a dog and transferred them to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS).

The animals were transported safely in an animal Service vehicle. BARCS provided care and medical treatment for the reptiles, some of which needed immediate attention, officials said.

BARCS also provided temporary housing for the animals. According to the shelter, several local reptile rescues stepped in to take over caring for the animals.

BARCS said donations sent to the shelter fully covered the costs of intake, examinations, and immediate medical care for the reptiles.

Baltimore animal rescues

This is not the first time BARCS has stepped in to help animals in need.

In 2024, 83 dogs and one cat were brought to the shelter after they were found in a rowhome in Baltimore. The shelter said the animals were found in small crates that were stacked on top of each other inside a house in the Cylburn/Pimlico neighborhood.

A similar case occurred in Harford County when more than 100 dogs were found in a large puppy mill, according to the Humane World for Animals. The dogs were part of a Havanese and terrier breeding operation and were found in “filthy” conditions, according to the organization. Officials said some of the dogs were crammed together in small cages and some were severely underweight.

In 2025, A Howard County nonprofit took in nearly 60 rabbits that were found on an abandoned farm in Woodstock. The organization called on the community to assist with fostering and adopting the animals after capturing them over several days.

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 Samantha Chaney

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    BOSTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A Black actress has filed a lawsuit against Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater in Cambridge for racial discrimination, saying her scalp was left permanently damaged from an unqualified hair stylist.

Nike Imoru said that during the 2025 production of “The Odyssey,” she was required to have cornrows installed. However, she said that the company did not hire a licensed hair stylist, instead it had a backstage worker style her hair. She said this violated the contractual obligation the theater has with the Actors’ Equity Association.

“The damage is indescribable. It is cataclysmic,” Imoru explained. “In fact, it doesn’t grow back.”

She said that the white actors were given qualified hairstylists, while she was left with tight cornrows that ripped the hair out of her head.

“I did not sleep that night. I slept sitting up, lying, sitting upright. Because of the pain and the tension, I took tablets that didn’t relieve it,” she explained.

The complaint said that Imoru was given the chance to find her own stylist, but “the short turnaround time that the show schedule required, coupled with Ms. Imoru’s unfamiliarity with local hair professionals, made working with an outside stylist unfeasible. Ms. Imoru also believed that the A.R.T. employee was fully qualified to style her hair because the A.R.T. had proposed that she could do so.”

“I was confident that a theater of that stature would have qualified, experienced people to do my hair, to do textured hair,” Imoru said.

Now, she says she has lost 90% of her hair from the experience and a dermatologist told her that most of her hair follicles are empty. She is now suing the theater for emotional damages. The complaint says that Imoru has lost jobs due to her hair loss.

“I continue to lose it – my hair – it is now permanent,” Imoru said.

She said she also decided to stop acting for good as she is unable to muster “the confidence to go on stage again.”

WBZ-TV reached out to the American Repertory Theater for comment on the lawsuit, but has not heard back.

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.