Month: April 2026

By Sarah Horbacewicz

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    BOULDER COUNTY, Colorado (KCNC) — As Colorado sees warmer weather, the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group (RMRG) is preparing to receive more calls from climbers in need of help. On April 12, volunteers spent six hours helping three climbers stuck in Eldorado Canyon State Park.

James Stewart is a volunteer with RMRG and rappelled down the rock to help the climbers hundreds of feet off the ground.

“I’ve done a fair amount of what we call pick-offs,” Stewart said, “It’s not that common for us to do rescues with such a large vertical cliff below.”

But that’s where Stewart says volunteers with the Boulder Emergency Squad flew drones that helped cut the rescue time in half. The drones lit up the rocks and kept an eye on the climbers.

“When you’re going over the edge, you can’t actually see the climbers below, so you have to traverse a little bit and then just blindly pick a spot to start going down,” Stewart said of a typical rescue. “[Drone operators] gave me some measurements on how far left or right I needed to go. The measurements they gave me landed me right on top of [the climbers].”

Stewart brought the climbers jackets and helped them back up to the top, where another RMRG volunteer, Kara Beaton, was there to meet them.

Beaton advised, “It’s always better to get to you before you have a big injury, or before you’re really lost,” she said, “It’s great to be able to walk out with a patient, as opposed to having to carry them out. So, we really appreciate that they called us for help before it got too hard.”

After about six hours, everyone was back on the ground. But with warmer weather on the way, RMRG wants everyone to be ready for their next climb, as the group receives about 200 calls a year, peaking in the summer. The team is all volunteer, so every rescue is free.

“Do what you love to do. Boulder is great for that, but make sure you’re prepared. Take extra layers. Take some extra water, take your food. Take a headlamp if you think you might be out past dark,” Beaton said.

RMRG also advised climbers that, however long it took a climber to get where they got stuck, it’ll take RMRG just as long to rescue them.

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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    Maryland (WJZ) — A Maryland man has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend after he initially told officers that she overdosed, according to Anne Arundel County Police.

Scott Kirby, 33, of Pasadena, was charged with murder, assault and giving a false statement to police after his girlfriend, 34-year-old Heather Beaver, was found dead in a home in April 2025, according to police.

Girlfriend found dead in Maryland home Officers responded to the home in the 1200 block of Lorene Court, where they found Beaver unresponsive after Kirby called 911 and said she appeared to be suffering from an overdose.

An autopsy revealed that Beaver had multiple blunt force injuries, and a toxicology test revealed her death had nothing to do with an overdose, police said.

During their investigation, police found evidence that contradicted Kirby’s explanation. Evidence from the scene suggested a violent struggle and assault had occurred.

Investigators eventually determined that Kirby assaulted Beaver, during which she suffered fatal injuries.

Kirby was arrested and charged in Beaver’s death on April 23, police said.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call 410-222-4731.

Victim’s mother condemns domestic violence In a statement, Beaver’s mother, Susan Beaver, said domestic violence affects too many families.

During an interview with WJZ last year, Susan Beaver said her daughter has two children and was in an abusive relationship.

“After a year of grief and unanswered questions, an arrest has finally been made in the murder of my daughter, Heather,” Susan Beaver said in a statement. “She was deeply loved and deserved a future filled with safety and happiness.”

Susan Beaver said her daughter was working to turn her life around before she died.

“In her memory, I ask our community to take domestic violence seriously – to listen, support and act. We will continue to honor Heather and seek justice in her name,” Susan added.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233.

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 Neal Riley

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    Massachusetts (WBZ) — Two Massachusetts colleges that recently announced plans to close this year will be laying off nearly 350 workers combined, according to state filings.

Anna Maria College in Paxton, which announced last week it will close after the spring semester, said layoffs will affect 150 workers. Hampshire College in Amherst is expecting 199 layoffs once it closes at the end of the Fall 2026 semester.

Hampshire College’s website says employees began to find out last week about their job status.

“The staff and faculty reductions will happen in waves, with the majority of employees ending their employment on June 15,” the college said. “Every employee will receive at least 60 days notice.”

Anna Maria said some staff will be retained to help students “through degree completion.” Layoffs there will take place between June 22 and June 30.

“We are working as quickly as possible to determine impacted roles and timelines, and will communicate directly with those affected as decisions are finalized,” the school’s website says.

Other schools are stepping up to take in students as transfers, but no similar partnerships have been established for staff members. The MassHire Department of Career Services will be helping laid-off faculty at both schools find new jobs.

An online petition supporting Hampshire College’s staff is asking leaders at other colleges in western Massachusetts to take in staff members who lose their jobs.

“The situation is a crisis,” the petition states. “Hampshire faculty and staff will lose their health insurance June 30th, cutting off their access to necessary medication and treatment. Some members of the community will face deportation; some will suffer housing insecurity.”

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 Dan Raby

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Portland last week had a special addition to its passenger list after a woman went into labor in the air.

A spokesperson for the Atlanta-based airline said that Delta Flight 478 was just about 30 minutes from Portland International Airport on Friday night when the unexpected visitor gave the signal it wanted to be there for the landing.

The flight attendants onboard sprang into action, aided by a doctor and two nurses who happened to be on board.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, actually,” Oregon EMT Tina Fritz told KOIN 6, saying that she and her friend improvised using a flight attendant’s shoestrings to create a makeshift tourniquet for an IV.

“She’s like, ‘I gotta push, I gotta push.’ And within three really good pushes, the baby was out and doing perfect. Mom was a rock star, like, mom did so good,” Fritz said.

Because of the situation, the crew declared an emergency and were given priority landing at the Portland airport. They landed safely, and the woman was met by emergency medical services.

“We extend our sincere thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who stepped in to provide care to a customer onboard prior to landing in Portland,” a Delta spokesperson told CBS News Atlanta. “The health and safety of our customers is always our top priority, and we wish the new family all the best.”

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 Geneva Zoltek

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    LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Colorado River, lifeline to 40 million people across the Southwest, is sliding deeper into what experts are calling “water bankruptcy.”

“We have overused the account,” Thomas Rebermark, policy director with the Stockholm International Water Institute, told Channel 13.

“We’re constantly overusing more than we actually get from the water system,” he continued.

In a United Nations report published earlier this year, researchers define the idea:

The concept of water bankruptcy draws attention to the evidence that societies rely on both renewable water flows and long-term natural storage, comparable to drawing on income and savings, and that in many basins and aquifers, sustained withdrawals have exceeded renewable replenishment and safe depletion thresholds.

Across regions and levels of development, water systems are under unprecedented pressure. Rivers, lakes and wetlands are degrading, groundwater resources are being depleted beyond sustainable limits, and glaciers are retreating at accelerating rates. These trends signal not only growing stress, but in many contexts a structural imbalance between water demand and available resources.

The Colorado River is named as a “hotspot” in the report because it demonstrates “over-promised” water.

Rebermark says the Southwest is not the only part of the world facing this sort of crisis.

“Whether it’s the Colorado River or it’s with the Nile or the Mekong or other examples also in Europe that we see that we have overused the income stream,” Rebermark explained.

“It doesn’t mean that water disappears overnight, but it means that every decision we take now is harder and more even more important. So that’s why we also need all hands on deck,” he continued.

Local trends of declining water:

This winter, the Upper Colorado Basin saw some of the lowest snow totals in recorded history. As a result, federal officials made a decision to limit water releases from Lake Powell downstream in the coming months. Officials say that will result in substantial drops in Lake Mead’s elevation.

“All we’re seeing are depletions,” Kyle Roerink, advocate with the Great Basin Water Network, said.

“We are dealing with changing snowpacks, changing runoff patterns, increasing evaporation rates, drier soils, and other natural phenomena that are depleting our bank accounts and our savings accounts,” he said.

Water managers face an encroaching deadline for the river and are expected to make key decisions by October on how to divvy up the shrinking Colorado River going forward. Negotiations between the seven basin states take place behind closed doors, leaving much of the public in the dark about what cuts could be coming down the pike.

“The state of negotiations right now is another unprecedented consideration that we are grappling with here in the desert Southwest. We have never seen all the states at loggerheads as they are right now. We have seen other states go toe-to-toe over the years, but never anything quite like this, and it is weighing heavily over the managerial decision-making, such as this issue that we’re talking about right now,” Roerink said.

“We really don’t know how things will work yet in 2027 and in 2028. But what we do know is that reservoir levels are going to be at their lowest levels ever. And so this is a dark cloud hanging over us, and unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it will be spitting out any water in the near future,” he continued.

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.