Month: March 2026

By Anna McAllister

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — Cubans in South Florida are voicing strong opposition to Cuba’s leadership, citing a growing civil and humanitarian crisis and a desire for freedom. The community is demanding regime change to end decades of oppression.

“The only thing that will give the Cuban people freedom and rights is a change in regime. A true democratic change,” said Sylvia Iriondo, president of Mothers and Women Against Oppression.

The demonstration of unity comes as Cuban leaders recently offered to allow exiles worldwide to invest in businesses and property on the island. However, this proposal is being met with immediate pushback from South Florida exiles.

“We’re not going to accept business with a tyranny, we’re not. We’re going to continue telling the world, the U.S. government, everybody about that. It’s immoral,” said Laida Carro.

Another community member expressed deep skepticism regarding the stability and security of such investments. “It has to be new people, not those people there. Because with them, you don’t have anywhere guarantee. With them, they might let you put a business or whatever, and then one day they say you don’t own this anymore. And that’s the way they’ve been doing it for 67 years,” said Elicio Arguelles.

In a separate update, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski confirmed that the archdiocese recently sent three planes loaded with supplies to Cuba, following a prior aid delivery after Hurricane Melissa months ago.

Archbishop Wenski shared his vision for a peaceful transition. “I hope, the same way that the Cuban bishops have expressed their hope, that there will be necessary transitions that will take place. And that these transitions result in a soft landing. A harsh landing, a landing that would require you know, a lot of violence and further disruption would not be good for Cuba or for its neighbors.”

For Cubans in South Florida, the fight continues until the Communist regime is ousted.

“There’s an incredible feeling of unity throughout the Cuban community here. We feel it in the air that it’s time to be free,” said Dr. Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat.

Iriondo affirmed that the current power structure must be removed, stating, “All of those who have those key positions, who have the power to go against the people, they have to go. They can’t be part of the solution. We need a Cuba. A true, free Cuba.”

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 Emily McLeod

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — Walking out to your front porch could mean a bag of food for someone in need.

The national nonprofit PORCH Communities has several chapters across the metro Atlanta area, including one in Marietta.

Essentially, neighbors leave nonperishable food donations on their front porch. Volunteers with a local chapter come by to pick it up for those in need.

Porch Marietta chapter member Debby Kramb was out on a cold, wet morning picking up food donations for the nonprofit.

“I’m a retired Cobb County teacher, and so the first food bank that we started to get organized was to fill up Brumby Elementary School snacks, and so I realized how important that was for families, and that’s why I got involved,” said Kramb. “I’ve been doing it for almost four years.”

Once the food has been picked up on designated pickup days, it is then sorted.

“It fills me with gratitude, really,” said PORCH Marietta chapter leader Liz Platner. She started the PORCH Marietta Chapter in 2022, and said that the demand has not slowed down.

“We’re rising to the need,” Platner said. “We’re meeting the needs, so, as much as we have more people who need it, we have a lot more volunteers who are willing to help.”

After the food is sorted by PORCH Marietta volunteers, it’s then brought to the Faith Pantry at Faith Lutheran Church. From there, the Faith Pantry volunteers, known as the Pantry Chicks, sort the food into bags for a local food giveaway benefitting families and seniors.

PORCH Marietta works with 15 different food pantries, including the Faith Pantry.

Faith Pantry volunteer Mitzi Lewis said PORCH Marietta is an important partner.

“Every month we get a delivery. We take approximately 175 to 200 bags over to Brumby Elementary for the families,” Lewis said. “Twenty-five of those being for seniors that are over 75 to 80-year-olds with smaller things in them.”

Lewis said the people who receive these bags need them.

“If we can take something off mom and dad, that they have a couple of meals that now they can pay the light bill, and that’s the goal,” Lewis 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 Mike Sullivan

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — Eighteen-year-old Davonte Jordan was in court on Thursday charged with robbing an elderly woman at gunpoint in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood on Wednesday in broad daylight. His arrest comes just months after he was charged with assault and battery on a police officer during an incident in January.

“I just can’t believe it. I just honestly cannot believe it,” said Mary Kay Donovan, a neighbor who lives near where the incident happened. “I have never heard of an armed robbery day or night here.”

Police say the robbery happened at the corner of Adams Street and Mt. Vernon Street. The victim told police two masked men approached her from behind at gunpoint, stole her purse, and ran.

“My memories of the late 2000’s, we had a lot of crime here. We had a ton of break-ins. My car got broken into and there was vandalism, kids stealing the cars,” said Simon Basher who lives a block from where the robbery allegedly occurred.

He says the crime dissipated when a police station was built a few blocks away.

“I think we all became very complacent,” said Basher. “We let our guards down.”

Court documents say two other neighbors helped police find the suspects. One spotted the two men and directed officers to where they went, and another woman found the victim’s purse in her backyard. After leaving to bring it to police, she found the victim and began helping her.

“We look out for each other, and you really have to. That’s how it goes here. We are townies and townies stick together,” said another neighbor Michael Feeney.

Court records show police spotted Jordan and a 14-year-old boy near Monument Street. The two fled but were eventually caught. No weapon was found, but the victim’s credit card was allegedly discovered on one of them during a search at the police station.

Jordan and the 14-year-old now face numerous charges including armed robbery of an elderly person.

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 Cheryl Fiandaca

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    MARTHA’S VINEYARD, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A babysitter on Martha’s Vineyard is awaiting trial on a manslaughter charge after a two-year-old boy in her care died.

Frankie Rodenbaugh died in March 2025, just days after his babysitter, 40-year-old Aimee Cotton of Oak Bluffs, allegedly left him in a car, strapped in his seat for hours with no food or water.

“The amount of damage she’s done to our community is unimaginable,” Frankie’s father, Matt Rodenbaugh, told WBZ-TV’s I-Team. “If I could help one family and a save a child from a situation like Frankie’s, I’ll do anything I can for that.”

He said his son was a “mini-me” and a ball of energy.

“Every day I’d come home from work,” Rodenbaugh said, “he would hear me coming and the dogs would bark, and he’d run to the gate here and yell, ‘Dada!’ and (give me) a big, huge hug. He’d hug everyone. Just a super happy little kid.”

The Rodenbaughs live on the Vineyard. They used a well-known and trusted babysitter to watch Frankie during the day. Aimee Cotton came highly recommended. They’d known her for more than 10 years.

“She watched my daughter, who’s now 6, for the first three years of her life,” Rodenbaugh said. “She was somebody really close to us and somebody we trusted.”

On March 13, 2005, Cotton brought Frankie to her home on Great Rock Road in Oak Bluffs. Hours later, she allegedly dialed 911 saying Frankie stopped breathing. Matt’s wife Julie called him at work.

“She said Frankie’s in an ambulance. He’s not breathing. I’m headed to the hospital now. I just kept saying ‘What do you mean, what happened?’ She’s like ‘I don’t know, I don’t know anything. Aimee called me crying,'” Rodenbaugh said.

Frankie was put on a medical rescue helicopter and rushed to Boston Children’s Hospital in grave condition.

“They lost his heart rate, there’s not a lot of neurological signals going on right now. We’re not really sure what happened. He’s not doing well. They keep telling me we’re very, very worried about Frankie and that’s exactly how they would tell me. I knew, I knew what that meant,” Rodenbaugh said.

While Frankie was fighting for his life in Boston, Matt got more heartbreaking news. His father Frank, who Frankie was named after, died after having a pacemaker put in.

“I looked at Julie and she’s like, ‘What’s wrong?’ and I said, ‘My dad died,'” Rodenbaugh said.

Without a moment to grieve, Massachusetts State Police told Rodenbaugh they had an update on the case.

Babysitter arrested “They said we want to tell you that we’re arresting Aimee. I remember my wife and I both were like, ‘You can’t do that. We love Aimee. She’s great,” Rodenbaugh recalled.

The family was shocked, until the police told them about the evidence they had.

“We reviewed the video of the camera on the outside of the house. We saw that Aimee came home at 9 something, she exited the vehicle and went into her house,” Rodenbaugh said. “He said she didn’t come back to the vehicle until around 12:30 or 1. I said OK. They said she was the only one who exited the vehicle.”

According to police reports, Cotton’s Nest video camera showed that another child and Frankie were left alone, strapped in car seats in her SUV for about three hours. The video allegedly does not show that Cotton ever took Frankie out of his car seat, changed him or gave him any food or water.

“She tortured my child” “She tortured my child,” Rodenbaugh told the I-Team. “They enhanced the audio of the video, and he can be heard calling out for Dada over and over and over again, until the video went silent.”

Police said Cotton admitted while the children were in the car she was inside the house cooking bacon, conducting personal hygiene and preparing her son’s hockey bags.

While police were making their case, Frankie’s condition worsened, and the couple made the difficult decision to take him off life support.

“It was horrible,” Rodenbaugh said. “I held his hand, and I just kept saying, ‘Go to Pap Pap.’ That’s what he called my dad. I held his hand for a long time and just kept saying, ‘Go to Pap Pap.”

Rodenbaugh has some peace believing Frankie is with his grandfather. At the same time, he’s demanding justice for his son.

“She played Russian roulette with my son’s life every day apparently and he didn’t win this one,” Rodenbaugh said. “Aimee killed my son.”

Babysitter free on bail Aimee Cotton is currently free on bail awaiting trial. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Attorney Harrison Barrow III represents Cotton in the criminal case. He declined the I-Team’s request for comment.

In February, the Rodenbaughs filed a civil suit against Cotton. They also started a foundation and built a playground in Frankie’s name.

Advice for parents Matt Rodenbaugh has this advice for parents.

“I think trust but verify is a big one. Trust your caregivers but ask questions, pop in, stop by, see if they’d be ok with a camera. It’s not to spy on them, it’s to make sure your child’s safe.” he said. “And listen to your kids.”

There is a bit of happy news. Just last week the couple welcomed their third child, a boy.

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.