Month: April 2026

By Emily Sanderson

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    VANDERBURGH COUNTY, Indiana (WLWT) — An Indiana man is facing charges, accused of stealing a Bud Light semi and leading officers on a chase that ended in a crash.

41-year-old Randall Baker has been charged with attempted murder, auto theft, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement, reckless operation of a tractor trailer and driving while intoxicated.

The situation unfolded Friday around 3:07 p.m. when deputies got word of a stolen beer truck out of Evansville.

Deputies saw the semi driving on Diamond Avenue and when they tried to pull the truck over, the driver refused, leading deputies on a chase.

During the pursuit, the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office said a deputy got out of his patrol car in an effort to deploy stop sticks. At the same time, the sheriff’s office said the suspect steered the semi toward the deputy and hit the patrol car, leaving heavy damage and causing the semi to veer off the road and into a field.

The deputy was uninjured.

Body camera footage shows deputies surround the semi, deploying pepper ball rounds and demanding the driver exit the truck.

The suspect was then taken into custody.

This incident remains under investigation.

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 Marcus McIntosh

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    MADRID, Iowa (KCCI) — More than a dozen small-town newspapers across Iowa may be nearing permanent closure as Mid-America Publishing moves to discontinue 18 community papers, raising concerns about the future of local journalism and the preservation of community history.

In Madrid, where a weekly newspaper has been printed since the late 1800s, the possible end of the Madrid Register has become a major local concern.

The paper’s closure would mark the end of a long tradition in a town where residents have relied on it for generations.

Mary Swalla Holmes, a board member with the Madrid Historical Museum, said losing the newspaper would mean losing an important record of community life.

“I think people’s lives, history, the people that came here to work in the coal mines, work on the railroads — it’s all here,” Holmes said.

Holmes said the loss would also be felt by future generations trying to understand the town’s past.

“I think about 50 years from now when somebody else is trying to look up some event or some history of a person, and there’ll be a big gap,” she said.

The possible closure has also hit the Wilcox family hard.

Jennifer Williams said her grandfather bought the newspaper in the 1950s, her father took over in the 1980s, and she and her husband, Ken, ran it beginning in 2008 before selling it to Mid-America Publishing in 2020.

“We just didn’t feel we could offer the best for the paper, so we looked for a company that had the things they could offer that we couldn’t,” Ken Williams said.

Williams said the family never expected the company to stop publishing the paper.

“We had a strong readership. We have a close-knit community. We had support within the community for the paper,” he said.

Even so, residents said they are holding on to hope that a buyer could step in and keep the Madrid Register in print.

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 Nick Lunemann

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    MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — A Metro Transit driver training instructor is being praised after rescuing a man from a burning vehicle while leading a training session in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Kenneth Johnson, who has been a bus driver for 10 years and an instructor for nearly four, was working with two students on March 13 when he came across a crash near 25th Street and Portland Avenue.

Johnson, who works out of Metro Transit’s instruction center training new bus operators, said the morning had started like any other.

“We were just having a good training session,” he said.

Then he saw smoke.

Johnson said he pulled over, grabbed a fire extinguisher from the back of the bus and ran toward the vehicle.

The car’s engine compartment was on fire and the driver inside was not moving or responding, Johnson said. He tried to break the side window with the extinguisher, then moved to the back window and eventually broke a smaller window before working to put out the flames.

Once the fire was under control, other people began to help, but the doors still would not open, Johnson said. He then contacted Metro Transit’s Transit Control Center to report what was happening.

Johnson said first responders arrived and took over. He does not know the condition of the driver.

He said the gravity of what happened did not hit him until after he and his students had left the scene.

“That’s where it actually hit me,” Johnson said. “I still got to get home to my family, too.”

Johnson said the experience became a real-world lesson for the trainees who were with him that day.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “But also know your surroundings.”

Coworkers have called him a hero, but Johnson said he does not see himself that way.

“I don’t honestly believe that I’m a hero,” he said. “I’m just a regular human being.”

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 Gino Vicci

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    DETROIT, Michigan (WWJ) — General Motors has announced that it’s making another round of layoffs at its Factory Zero plant in Detroit.

The latest round, the second this year, impacts roughly 1,300 workers and is due to a readjustment of operations because of declining electric vehicle demand.

The affected employees will be laid off temporarily for 30 days.

In January, 1,200 people were laid off at Factory Zero due to lower EV demand.

Many drivers CBS News Detroit spoke with on Tuesday said they are now open to purchasing an EV because the cost of gas has skyrocketed since the US-led war with Iran began, like Ken Stilwell.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s too much,” Stilwell said when referring to the cost at the pump.

Stilwell said he’s never owned an EV but would strongly consider it now despite a lack of infrastructure.

“I think I would, but there would have to be more infrastructure for the charging stations. I worry about that I drive up north a lot and that’s always a huge concern,” he said.

Marvin Thomas is also considering EVs if higher gas prices continue.

“At a certain point, gasoline will become obsolete and EV’s will become the new gasoline,” Thomas said.

Automotive experts like Paul Eisenstein have been sounding the alarm about EV production and staffing since the tax credits to purchase them went away and demand has significantly lowered over the years.

Eisenstein predicted layoffs last year and that is happening, particularly with GM as of late.

With lower EV demand and higher gas prices, the automotive industry is in an unusual predicament.

This is something that Thomas believes could force car buyers to eventually choose EVs.

“If gas were to keep rising, EVs will become the new gasoline, so most people will have to switch over,” Thomas 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 WTKR Web Staff

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    EMPORIA, Virginia (WTKR) — A Virginia State trooper pulled a man from his burning pickup truck in Emporia on Wednesday, police say.

The trooper, identified only as S. Baker, was responding to a disabled vehicle on Low Ground Road.

In video provided by VSP, the trooper is seen pulling the man from the wrecked car seconds before it’s engulfed in flames.

Police say the grass beneath the truck caught fire as Baker was speaking to the driver.

The driver was evaluated by EMS and was taken home afterward.

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 Jenna Wells

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    KENOSHA, Wisconsin (WDJT) — Kenosha police believe they have cracked a cold case.

An arrest was made Monday, March 30, for a murder that happened almost five decades ago.

Police said advanced technology, diligent investigative work, and a nationwide collaboration led to the arrest of a 68-year-old man in Tennessee, now charged with killing a Kenosha man inside his home in 1977.

“Today represents an important step towards justice for the victim, their family, and our community,” said Lt. Adam Jurgens, Kenosha Police Department’s public information officer.

The reopened cold case could bring closure to the family of Ralph Gianoli, 49 years after his death.

“To say that we are overwhelmed is an understatement, and overjoyed with the news that we received yesterday,” said Gianoli’s niece, Carla Smith.

Ralph Gianoli was 48 years old on Sept. 7, 1977, when a friend found him dead in his home on 25th Avenue near 53rd Street in Kenosha.

“Officers on scene reported signs of violent struggle, including blood spatter, broken bottles and overturned furniture,” said Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton during a Tuesday press conference about the case.

Gianoli was found with an electrical cord tied around his neck. An autopsy determined his cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Investigators on scene collected hairs, fingernail scrapings, and several other pieces of evidence.

“Great credit to the detectives and investigators at the time, that they did such a great job of preserving evidence,” said Captain James Beller, the head of Kenosha Police Department’s cold case unit.

At the time, investigators exhausted all leads available, and with no arrests, the case went cold.

Gianoli’s family held out hope, and 30 years later, his niece had her first meeting with detectives.

“I’ve been offered nothing but kindness and respect, and really, realism that this may not ever be solved,” Smith explained.

According to the criminal complaint, at the time of his death, Gianoli worked at American Motors, had no known enemies, and frequented local taverns.

In 2023, the Wisconsin State Crime Lab developed a partial-known male DNA profile from Gianoli’s fingernail clippings that were collected during his autopsy. The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA file was developed in a private lab and uploaded into a family tree DNA database.

Detectives conducted investigative genealogy through public websites, and matched relatives to the suspect DNA, leading them to James Terry Fowler in Memphis, Tennessee.

Detectives found Fowler was previously convicted of killing his father in 1983 in Huntsville, Alabama, but only served five years, as the plea was downgraded from murder to manslaughter.

Court records said Fowler had shot his father, who was in a wheelchair, several times. Witnesses described Fowler as a “quiet loner” who couldn’t hold a job and “wandered the country,” and said he was staying with his father for several months before the murder.

Through court records, Kenosha detectives found Fowler had a child with a woman who lived in Salem, Oregon. They interviewed her in October of 2024, and she described him as “extremely violent and abusive.”

Detectives also interviewed Fowler’s biological son, who said he had never met his father, and allowed investigators to collect his DNA, which matched with Fowler’s.

Investigators also found Fowler had graduated from the Great Lakes Naval Base, 20 miles from Kenosha, just days before Gianoli was killed.

In January of 2025, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation obtained a search warrant for DNA swabs and fingerprints from Fowler. They located him living in a shack behind a home near Memphis, and he agreed to an interview.

The complaint states that during the interview, Fowler recalled his time at Great Lakes and visiting Wisconsin. He told them about being convicted for killing his father, saying it was, “not the best time” in his life, and he stopped drinking and doing drugs after that.

When asked about the night of Gianoli’s murder, Fowler told investigators he was out drinking at a club and wanted to go home with a girl. When detectives showed him a photo of Gianoli and the crime scene, he said he didn’t want to look at the photo or talk about what happened at the house that night.

One month later, the Wisconsin State Crime Lab confirmed that the DNA collected throughout the process was Fowler’s – a probability of one in 296 trillion of random match to unrelated individual.

“The Cold Case works hard, and they use whatever technology is available, and as technology advances, we continue to explore it and use it,” Beller said.

The Kenosha Police Department and Kenosha County district attorney worked with several organizations to establish probable cause, and on Jan. 16, 2026, they issued an arrest warrant for $1.5 million.

KPD detectives arrested Fowler in Memphis on March 30, 2026.

“We are just all so grateful that you didn’t give up, and that justice will be served,” Gianoli’s niece said.

Fowler is currently in custody in Tennessee, awaiting extradition to Kenosha for one count of first-degree murder.

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.