March 2026 – Page 170 – NPG Content Share

Firefighters get a once-in-a-career call: rescuing a woman’s pet snake from underneath her car

CNN Newsource on March 11, 2026

By Joan Murray

CORAL SPRINGS, Florida (WFOR) — The crews at Fire Station 43 in Coral Springs are used to all types of emergencies, but nothing quite like what happened Saturday night.

“Our driver told us there’s a snake in the car!” said Justin Ehlin, a firefighter/paramedic of three years.

Two women in a Hyundai hatchback told the crew that their pet ball python, named Ritchie, had slithered into a compartment underneath the console and would not come out. The one-year-old ivory banana ball python was trapped for 8 hours, according to its owner, Camryn Drew.

Drew said she and a friend had just bought pet food and were back in the car traveling when Ritchie found an opening underneath and made his way into the compartment. “We tried, but we couldn’t get him out,” she said. They even bought tools to try to take the seat out and free Ritchie, but to no avail. That’s when someone suggested trying the fire department.

Once on the scene, the group of firefighters got to work, taking out panels and a seat to get to Ritchie. It took nearly an hour. Battalion Chief Jon Robbins recorded the rescue. “I am deathly afraid of snakes, so I supervised and took video,” he said.

After reaching the python, it was pulled to safety. Ehlin called it a once-in-a-career procedure. “It was curled up. I thought it would bite, but it was friendly,” he said.

Drew is grateful the firefighters saved the day, calling Richie a constant companion. “He goes with the flow. He’ll cling to you and hang out,” she said.

That’s why ball pythons are such popular pets, according to Robin Reccasina, executive director of The Sawgrass Nature Center in Coral Springs. “They don’t get big. They curl up like a ball,” she said.

Unlike the invasive Burmese pythons found in the Everglades, the ball pythons are docile and low-maintenance. Drew says she will still take Ritchie out in a car but will keep him contained next time.

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.

Spelman College students developing AI tool designed to help people talk to their plants

CNN Newsource on March 11, 2026

By Madeline Montgomery

Click here for updates on this story

ATLANTA (WUPA) — Spelman College students are working on an artificial intelligence tool that would allow people to talk to their plants.

It’s called PlantGPT, and the goal is to help anyone have a green thumb.

PlantGPT uses artificial intelligence to monitor a plant’s health data. Sensors in the soil collect real-time data. The AI processes the information and creates personalized care instructions.

“I don’t know anything about plants. That’s why this is perfect,” said Temple Dees, a junior working on the project.

“The original idea was really rooted in this concept of ‘Would the plant survive more likely if it has its own voice and agency?'” said Eric Thompson, the assistant director of the Innovation Lab at Spelman College.

Plant GPT can only handle certain questions.

“Humidity, light intensity, soil moisture, and its outside temperature,” said junior Jessica Obi.

Although Obi and Dees both claim not to have green thumbs, they have big plans for Plant GPT that go beyond simple houseplants.

“There’s a bunch of sensors going on right now, so for the average user, this is not really convenient for anyone, so we want to compartmentalize all of that and make it more accessible and easier for a user to use,” said Obi. “We do also want it to expand potentially for local farms, so a group of multiple plants as well, so any environment where the caretaker would need to know the stats and information about their plant.”

“You deal with a million different ideas, and to see the students supporting each other and also imagining what their futures can be in the space, and working on ideas that are way ahead of their time. I always leave this place with a sense of pride,” said Thompson.

Obi and Dees hope to pursue careers in computer science. In the short term, the project may get them to make their own lives a bit greener.

“Maybe I’ll get my own plant once everything is finished with this,” Obi said.

Adapted tango dance boosts mobility for veterans with Parkinson’s Disease

CNN Newsource on March 11, 2026

By Leondra Head

Click here for updates on this story

ATLANTA (WUPA) — An Emory University professor is teaching adapted tango dance classes to veterans living with Parkinson’s disease, helping them reclaim their lives.

Dr. Madeleine Hackney recently completed a clinical trial on the benefits of Parkinson’s patients taking a specific type of tango class.

“I’ve lost a lot of my balance because of Parkinson’s,” said Jerry Feldman, a veteran living with the disease.

Sixty-nine-year-old Jerry Feldman is living with this incurable illness, which affects his mobility and balance. His remedy is a combination of medication and dancing.

Feldman has attended these adapted tango classes every week for more than three years.

“It makes a difference for me. Dancing is great exercise. It gives me an opportunity to get out of the house, socialize, and have fun,” Feldman said.

That’s the goal, according to Emory School of Medicine professor Madeleine Hackney.

She teaches adapted tango as a form of therapy and modified dance for people with Parkinson’s.

“Why is adapted tango more beneficial than other forms of movement for people living with Parkinson’s?” CBS Atlanta’s Leondra Head asked Hackney.

“I don’t want to say necessarily that it’s more beneficial than any other form of exercise. We do think dancing could be an excellent form of exercise and physical rehabilitation, because you have to engage the mind and try to remember steps,” Hackney said.

She completed a nationally registered clinical trial.

It included around 80 Parkinson’s patients who took adapted tango classes for 16 months—twice a week for the first three months, then once a week for the remaining 13 months.

“We had a pleasant finding that patients were reporting their medications were working better for them. We also noted that motor symptoms improved after the three months,” Hackney said.

The clinical trial findings suggest adapted tango improves balance in Parkinson’s patients with mild symptoms.

“Our participants, which included many veterans, had improved quality of life related to activities of daily living and disease burdens,” Hackney said.

Here’s Feldman’s advice to others living with Parkinson’s disease:

“Movement is critical. You gotta keep moving,” Feldman said.

“Call A Boomer” payphone at Boston University connects students, seniors 3,000 miles apart

CNN on March 11, 2026

WBZ

By Aaron Parseghian

Click here for updates on this story

BOSTON (WBZ) — Amid the hustle and bustle of Boston’s Commonwealth Ave, an unusual sight is catching the attention of passersby in 2026: a payphone.

But this one comes with a purpose.

The graphics across it and the directions posted on it, encourage people, especially college students to pick up the phone and “Call a Boomer.”

When someone lifts the phone, they’re automatically connected to another payphone at a senior living complex in Reno, Nevada, creating a chance conversation between strangers separated by roughly 3,000 miles.

Some calls end up going to voicemail, like the one left by Kyra, who hoped her message might reach someone who needed to hear it.

“I love it. I mean, I think younger people and older people, I would argue, need to talk to each other more,” she said. “We’ve all forgotten that there are lots of way to stay in touch and break that loneliness and isolation.”

Other calls lead to conversations. I talked with the manager of the housing facility, who said most residents, who are 62 and up and single or widowed, are thrilled to have the opportunity for connection.

When the phone rang in Boston Tuesday afternoon, a woman who grew up in New Hampshire, now retired in Reno, was excited to speak with someone back home.

The project is run by Matter Neuroscience, which says the goal is to foster connection between generations that most often experience loneliness.

“We believe in connection over cortisol. We want people to live happier lives and increase their wellbeing, their emotional fitness. And we believe the pathway to doing this is teaching people about their happiness,” said Calla Kessler. “How they can create more of it by understanding their brains, molecular interactions with neurotransmitters.”

The effort is part of the organization’s broader mission to boost happiness for the “collective good.”

“Right now, we’re in the midst of a growing mental health crisis, with over 200 million people living with major depressive disorders. We can reverse this if we start paying attention to what makes us happy — internally, molecularly. Luckily, we all have built-in biological reward systems that already do this for us. Most of us just haven’t had the tools to use and understand them until now,” reads a statement on the company’s website.

“We’re often in our little bubbles and we have a lot to learn from each other despite our differences,” Keller added.

The phones are refurbished payphones the company bought online, the one in Reno only differs by asking seniors to call “Zoomers.”

“We just want people to leave the phone conversation with a feeling of happiness and that connection is possible in this polarized world,” Kessler said.

For many participants, organizers say even a short conversation can make a difference.

“This is so sweet,” one caller in Boston said emotionally.

Matter Neuroscience says the phones will be up for at least a month, and they’ll be posting highlights from conversations on their social media pages.

Earlier this year they placed phones in Texas and California to foster connections between people on different sides of the political spectrum.