Month: March 2026

KCBS

By Nicole Comstock, Dean Fioresi

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    SIERRA VISTA, California (KCAL, KCBS) — An unlikely run at the California state title has put the Sierra Vista High School Dons girls’ basketball team’s cell phone ban in the spotlight, which they say has not only brought them closer but also helped them dominate their competition.

Head coach Sandra Duckering says that the decision has “made a world of difference” since losing 11 of their first 15 games to start the season.

She says that she believes the Dons kept losing games because they were making TikToks, texting and scrolling social media instead of being present with each other.

“The one thing I noticed is: we were super disconnected,” Duckering said.

From then on, she has confiscated each of the girls’ phones before each practice and game, separating them from their lives outside of basketball to focus on what is now their best season in school history.

She collects the phones in a bucket every day, centering the girls’ attention on their team.

“Once they connected, we got flow. It was just amazing,” she said. “Their game changed. Their bond changed.”

The Dons then began winning games by monstrous scores on their way to SVHS’s first CIF Southern Section Championship and trip to Bakersfield on Tuesday, where they’re taking part in the school’s first-ever State Championship playoff game.

“We’ve been ranked lower, so we’re kind of like the underdogs in this story,” said Cailei Buna, the team’s point guard. “We took that in a way to show the underdogs shouldn’t be slept on.”

On Feb. 18, they scored a season-high 71 points in a playoff matchup, just two games after dominating another opponent 68-7. They’re 14-2 after their rough start to the year, and are averaging nearly 58 points per game.

The team says that the phone ban freed up their attention so that they could focus on working together as a team.

“Before we would argue a lot,” said Mareessa Navarro. “We would have this distance.”

Now, they work hard not just for themselves, but for each other.

“Talking with each other as a team, just being with each other, I think that really got us close, and we’ve just been working hard,” said Evanna Malloy.

They say that hard work pays off, thanks to a simple drop in the bucket.

“I wanna be able to come home with another championship if we can,” said Alyssa Winlock. I wanna work hard. I know my teammates wanna work hard, so we need to hustle and push with everything we have.”

The Dons have to win just four more games to become the state champions. Their first game, against the Foothill High School Trojans, was an unfortunate 55-45 loss, ending their season.

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 Nicole Comstock, Dean Fioresi

Click here for updates on this story

    SIERRA VISTA, California (KCAL, KCBS) — An unlikely run at the California state title has put the Sierra Vista High School Dons girls’ basketball team’s cell phone ban in the spotlight, which they say has not only brought them closer but also helped them dominate their competition.

Head coach Sandra Duckering says that the decision has “made a world of difference” since losing 11 of their first 15 games to start the season.

She says that she believes the Dons kept losing games because they were making TikToks, texting and scrolling social media instead of being present with each other.

“The one thing I noticed is: we were super disconnected,” Duckering said.

From then on, she has confiscated each of the girls’ phones before each practice and game, separating them from their lives outside of basketball to focus on what is now their best season in school history.

She collects the phones in a bucket every day, centering the girls’ attention on their team.

“Once they connected, we got flow. It was just amazing,” she said. “Their game changed. Their bond changed.”

The Dons then began winning games by monstrous scores on their way to SVHS’s first CIF Southern Section Championship and trip to Bakersfield on Tuesday, where they’re taking part in the school’s first-ever State Championship playoff game.

“We’ve been ranked lower, so we’re kind of like the underdogs in this story,” said Cailei Buna, the team’s point guard. “We took that in a way to show the underdogs shouldn’t be slept on.”

On Feb. 18, they scored a season-high 71 points in a playoff matchup, just two games after dominating another opponent 68-7. They’re 14-2 after their rough start to the year, and are averaging nearly 58 points per game.

The team says that the phone ban freed up their attention so that they could focus on working together as a team.

“Before we would argue a lot,” said Mareessa Navarro. “We would have this distance.”

Now, they work hard not just for themselves, but for each other.

“Talking with each other as a team, just being with each other, I think that really got us close, and we’ve just been working hard,” said Evanna Malloy.

They say that hard work pays off, thanks to a simple drop in the bucket.

“I wanna be able to come home with another championship if we can,” said Alyssa Winlock. I wanna work hard. I know my teammates wanna work hard, so we need to hustle and push with everything we have.”

The Dons have to win just four more games to become the state champions. Their first game, against the Foothill High School Trojans, was an unfortunate 55-45 loss, ending their season.

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 KSBY Staff

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    MORRO BAY (KSBY) — Chuck and Rusty Slover are toasting to 75 years of marriage.

The couple tied the knot on March 3, 1951, and have six children.

Rusty took care of their large family while Chuck built PGA golf courses around the country.

So, what’s the secret to a long marriage?

Chuck said, “Every morning when you get up and they’re laying there beside you and you turn over and they’ve got a big smile, it just, it’s just the start of a good day and it goes on and on and on, and I think that is a key to a happy life and a long life and a great marriage.”

“You’re very romantic. I love the way you say that,” Rusty said with a laugh. “But you’re right.”

On Tuesday afternoon, their children joined them at their Morro Bay home to celebrate.

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 Molly Demrow

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    LEXINGTON, Kentucky (WLEX) — Larry Clark is turning 75 on March 8, and his daughter Mattea has one simple goal: 75 birthday cards for a man she calls her hero.

Mattea Clark, who is active-duty military, recently moved back to Lexington, choosing orders closer to home to be near her father.

“I just moved back from Washington state, and I chose orders out here because I wanted to be closer to my dad, and I just wanted to do a very kind gesture for him because he means so much to me,” Mattea said.

Larry is a Vietnam veteran who served in the military, worked 26 years as a mail carrier and spent another decade as a school bus driver.

“He’s had a life full of many experiences, but with much knowledge and just a lot of experiences to share,” Mattea said.

After losing her mother in 2019, Larry and Mattea leaned on each other even more.

“It was back in 2019 when I first joined the Navy. So, it was a little tough for both of us,” Mattea said.

Mattea was adopted from China after her parents spent years trying to grow their family.

“They were able to fly over to China to go get me and explore because the story was my mother, my birth mother, left me in a basket at a bus station,” Mattea said.

She describes her father as a simple man with simple pleasures.

“He likes fishing. He likes food. And he likes watching TV,” Mattea said.

But for Mattea, her father is anything but ordinary.

“Being a female in the military and I think the first female in my family serving is something to be very proud of and my dad is extremely proud of my service, and he’s definitely somebody I look up to,” Mattea said.

For a man who, by his daughter’s account, has everything and wants nothing, Mattea says the cards are about something deeper.

“For a man who has everything and wants nothing, why not do something? I mean that’s more meaningful,” Mattea 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 Megan Mannering

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    SCOTT COUNTY, Kentucky (WLEX) — The last-standing structure of the Choctaw Academy — the nation’s first federally controlled Native American boarding school — sits on farmland in Georgetown, Scott County, and a new discovery about one of its students could bring fresh attention to the deteriorating site.

The Choctaw Academy was established in 1825 on U.S. Vice President Richard M. Johnson’s Scott County farm. It was the first federally controlled boarding school for Native Americans, following a treaty in which the Choctaw secured a perpetual $6,000 annual education fund from the federal government. The academy educated more than 600 boys from 17 tribes. Some students went onto Transylvania University and studied law and medicine.

Georgetown Ophthalmologist Dr. Chip Richardson acknowledges the complicated history of Native American boarding schools but says the academy’s role in American history must be remembered.

“I think you could say this was the most unique place in antebellum America, and as much as the Native Americans pulled support at the end, I think the degree of impact this left is immeasurable,” Richardson said.

The building still standing on the site would have served as a dormitory, but Richardson says his latest discovery isn’t about a structure — it’s about a person who studied at the Choctaw Academy and went on to do remarkable things.

“In 1842, a Native American by the name of Joel Barrow was accepted to Transylvania University. He chose a course of study in medicine, and graduated in 1844. What’s really interesting about Joel Barrow, he not only defended his thesis but he went back to his tribe in 1848 to serve them as a physician and I have proof of that in a newspaper article I found,” Richardson said.

Records point to few Native American physicians with a college medical degree from that era.

With help from author Christina Snyder, Richardson traced Barrow’s story. Barrow was known as Arcmuggue to his Potawatomi people. Richardson confirmed the story through the Choctaw Nation’s Historical Preservation Officer, including an article announcing Barrow as a tribal doctor.

“It says ‘We’re announcing this individual Joel Barrow as a servant to the tribe in the capacity of physician, and he went to Choctaw Academy and graduated from Transylvania.’ There’s no question we’re talking about the same person at this point,” Richardson said.

Richardson says Barrow may be the first Indigenous, college-trained physician in America — and deserves recognition.

“What we’re doing right now is getting the state to recognize Joel Barrow through legislative resolution and I hope that opens the door for more public interest in this story,” Richardson said.

For Richardson, that attention is urgent — as the Choctaw Academy continues to deteriorate.

“I’ve been looking for a long time to get an angel to save the Choctaw Academy because I don’t think there’s a more important place in antebellum America,” Richardson 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 Justin White

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    COLLEGE TOWN, Florida (WTXL) — A FAMU doctoral student is developing a seawater-powered battery that could transform how military submarines operate underwater and underwater expeditions.

A Florida A&M University doctoral student is developing a battery powered by seawater that could dramatically extend the range and stealth of unmanned underwater military vehicles.

Destiny Law, an electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, is building a lithium seawater flow battery designed for unmanned submarines and underwater vehicles.

Law said the technology could solve a critical vulnerability for military operations.

“For submarines, right now they have to come back to the surface to recharge, and they can sometimes have to stay for hours, sometimes even days to recharge, and that’s like very dangerous for our soldiers. So with our battery, they won’t. If they do have to come back up to recharge, it’s only for like a few, maybe max 30 minutes,” Law said.

By incorporating seawater into the battery’s chemistry, Law said the system could deliver more than 10 times the energy of traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Her research is the first of a renewed partnership between Florida A&M University and The Boeing Company.

Petru Andrei, an electrical and computer engineering professor, said Law’s dedication drove the project forward.

“Working with Destiny actually made this quite exciting, because Destiny was so dedicated to the project she loved it from the very beginning and not only that you could see her coming on the weekends to do work for, shows she was really excited…it’s been great actually to have Destiny work with this one and we hope that she will actually continue this project for the next 3 or 4 years again, in fact we have already are looking for other students to continue her work,” Andrei said.

The path to that breakthrough was not without setbacks. Law said the challenges she faced made the success even more meaningful.

“Finally being able to get that success, after all those fails was like the best part of like my research because coming in I had very limited battery knowledge didn’t really have like battery knowledge behind me so I was like it’s a whole new world for me and that was like the most exciting part like to open up a new space that I’ve never been in as an electrical engineer,” Law said.

After graduating this spring, Law will head to Boeing full-time, where she will continue her work on the technology.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WTXL verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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 Rob Hughes

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    KANE COUNTY, Illinois (WLS) — It sounds like a gadget straight out of a Batman movie but instead of coming to a theater near you, “The Grappler” is outfitted on a Kane County Sheriff’s squad car.

“First deployment on the street, actually doing this, not in training, is very nerve-wracking, but once you make the decision, you just have to go with it,” Sgt. Ryan Rojkowski said.

The first time for Sgt. Rojkowski was successful as he pursued a suspect in a residential area.

Thanks to the new tool, he safely stopped the car instead of potentially ending the chase in a crash.

“In a real world application the left and right bars would fold out which would then bring the net to about here – which would also pull the net apart,” Sgt. Rojkowski said.

The pursuing officer then gets nearly bumper to bumper with the fleeing vehicle, the net catches the tire, the officer brakes and both vehicles come to a stop.

“If we can stop something very quickly from escalating even more, this is something that, why wouldn’t we look into?” Kane County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Amy Johnson said.

Undersheriff Johnson said the Grappler costs between $5,000 to $8,000 per unit. In addition, it costs about $300 to get the net-repackaged after use.

Still both Johnson and Rojkowski say the money makes sense.

“Just a simple bumper, a headlight. You know, you’re starting to go above $2,000 if it’s only about $300 bucks to get this net replaced, and there’s no damage to the squad car that keeps the squad car in service,” Rojkowski said.

As for the safety of the officers and people involved, the jury is still out.

Reports in other states suggest fleeing suspects have been injured or even killed after the Grappler was deployed.

Undersheriff Johnson admits, just like a pit maneuver or spike strips, there’s an element of risk they train to navigate.

“Are we going at high speeds? Are we not going at high speeds? Is it a populated area? So are there kids involved? High speed traffic, Randall Road, all of these different areas. And is it, you know, a life-or-death situation, let’s say. So those are all of the things that we’re trained, and our policies and procedures mirror,” Johnson said.

The Sheriff’s Office currently has two vehicles outfitted with the Grappler.

They say they hope to add two more, covering all three shifts and one for their special investigations unit.

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 Evelyn Holmes

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    CHICAGO (WLS) — The story of a stolen pet van filled with dogs had a happy ending and plenty of emotional reunions on Tuesday.

The theft happened at about 8:55 a.m. outside at Animal Lovers Pet Salon on North Clybourn, police said.

The dogs were being dropped off after spending time at Markay’s Castle of the Dogs, a dog boarding facility in Tippecanoe, Indiana.

David Cox, the owner of the boarding facility, said he was dropping off the pets in Lincoln Park. He left the vehicle running to keep the animals comfortable.

“I just went in inside with the dogs’ belongings and turned around to come out and get the dogs to take them inside, and the van was gone,” Cox said.

Cox says the thief tossed the cellphone he had left in the van on the street after stealing the vehicle.

With the help of lots of social media posts about the theft, Chicago police tracked down the 2021 blue and black transit van in an alley near Lakewood and Oakdale avenues in Lakeview.

The vehicle’s license plates had been changed by the time it was found by police.

Along with the dogs, the van had some lawn equipment, an air mattress and trash.

All dogs were unharmed and reunited with their owners.

Nicholas Iwaniuk hugged his dog Shadow during what he said has been the longest morning of his life.

“It’s been the worst three hours,” Iwaniuk said. “This is the best news possible that she’s safe. Everybody’s safe that’s all that really matters.”

The 10-year-old Austrian collie mix was one of eight dogs.

Pet owner Monica Bain was there when it happened, she said she was just glad to have her dog Cash back.

“Anybody would be terrified, knowing that our dogs are in a van that we don’t know where it’s going, and we don’t know if we’re going to get them back,” Bain said.

“All I can say is I’m sorry and I am,” Cox said. “This shouldn’t have happened. People trust us, my wife and I are our team to take care of their dogs.”

The pet transport now says they’ll add additional security to try to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Chicago police said a 46-year-old man was taken into custody in the 1200 block of W. Oakdale Avenue. Charges are pending.

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 Craig Wall

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    CHICAGO (WLS) — Gov. JB Pritzker is trying to downplay any concerns about landing a Chicago Bears stadium in Illinois because of delayed action by state lawmakers.

His comments on Tuesday also suggested a possible disconnect with Mayor Brandon Johnson about any chance of keeping the team in Chicago.

Lawmakers don’t return to Springfield for more than two weeks. That means there can be no action until later this month on a bill that would pave the way for state funding for needed infrastructure improvements around the Arlington Heights property where the Bears are considering building a stadium.

“Obviously, as fast as we can get this done through the legislature, and that’s going to be up to the legislators to do it that, you know, we want to get it done for the Bears,” Pritzker said.

The Bears are looking to move on from Soldier Field, either to a domed stadium that they would build as part of a larger development project in Arlington Heights or to a taxpayer-financed stadium near Wolf Lake, in Hammond, Indiana.

The property in Arlington Heights would require state-funded infrastructure improvements around the stadium, something lawmakers in Springfield are still debating.

“I think the most important thing for us, and I think we’ve been very clear with the Bears organization, it’s not just about getting this done, but getting it right,” said state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago.

Mayor Johnson is still holding on to the seemingly unlikely chance that the Bears could stay in the city, suggesting if Chicago had been offered similar infrastructure help as is being debated for Arlington Heights, it might have changed the conversation.

“The Bears have already shown a willingness to work with my administration to keep the Bears in the city of Chicago despite whatever other false information is promulgated,” Johnson said.

“Indeed, if there were a place in the city of Chicago that the Bears said this is where we want to put a stadium, we would be talking about infrastructure for that. That is not what they’ve said. They literally have said, they’ve looked at every site that is available,” Pritzker said.

But negotiations also involve appeasing some 40 state lawmakers representing Chicago.

“I think what’s important for us is to make sure that whatever happens here is something that we are not regretting as a delegation, and that the right things are done. I also want to say, Craig, that this is not a hostage negotiation. This is a conversation about economic development,” Buckner said.

A group named Hoosiers for Responsible Taxation has launched a website with a video opposing a taxpayer-funded stadium for the Bears.

It comes after Gov. Mike Braun signed legislation to approve a stadium authority to pursue the possibility of luring the Bears to Hammond.

Buckner remains confident Illinois will get a deal done to keep the Bears somewhere on this side of the border.

“We need to get to a point where everybody is on the same page, and everybody has gotten at least some piece of what they need in this conversation. And so I think the governor is right. The mayor is right. I think that we got to continue to figure out how to move forward,” Buckner said.

The Bears did not immediately respond to a request for comment on where negotiations are from their standpoint.

Buckner did note that stadium deals involve complicated negotiations, which just take 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.