Humane Society of Yuma preparing for kitten season

Adrik Vargas

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA) – It’s kitten season in Yuma, and the Humane Society of Yuma (HSOY) says it’s one of the busiest and most critical times of the year.

So far, about 85 kittens have already come into the shelter. While many are in foster care, staff say their foster volunteers are starting to feel overwhelmed.

This year, the shelter has a clear goal: no healthy kitten entering the shelter will be euthanized. But they say reaching that goal will take help from the community.

There are several ways to get involved. People can adopt, foster kittens, or volunteer with the shelter’s “Kitten Squad” to help care for newborns.

No prior experience is needed and training will be provided, according to HSOY.

They’re also reminding people to be careful when they find kittens outside. In many cases, the mother cat is still nearby, even if she’s not immediately visible.

Staff say well-meaning people often bring kittens in thinking they’ve been abandoned, when they may actually be better off staying where they are so their mother can care for them.

HSOY is also asking for supplies, which can include the following:

Heating pads

KMR (kitten milk replacer) formula

Baby wipes

Miracle nipples

Monetary donations can be made here.

If you are interested in fostering, please contact Paige at pbrooke@hsoyuma.com and or register at https://hsoyuma.com/fostering-a-pet.html.

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Police, fire departments honor Philadelphia teen who broke car window to help woman

By Liz Crawford

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A teenager from Philadelphia is being called a hero after helping a woman last month who appeared to be having a seizure behind the wheel.

On Friday, Jaheim Warner said he was nervous. The auditorium was full of his classmates, and he was being honored by first responders and officials for what he did last month when he was a lot more than just nervous.

Four weeks ago, when he was walking home from his baseball game, Warner said he noticed a bunch of frantic adults around a white pick-up truck. The woman in the driver’s seat of the truck appeared to be having a seizure and the truck kept inching toward the intersection of Tulip and Hellerman streets. The doors were locked and somebody needed to stop that truck.

“I went to go look in the trash can for like a pipe or something, and luckily I found the pipe,” Warner said.

Warner said he jumped in the bed of the truck and used the pipe to break the back window.

“Then I squeezed through that little, tiny window in the back,” he said.

Warner put the truck in park and stayed with the woman until an ambulance arrived.

“I just told her, ‘I’m not going to leave you, I got you,'” he said.

Fast forward to one month later and his high school, Tacony Academy Charter, hosted a presentation with the police and fire departments to recognize his actions. He was given gift certificates, awards and a roaring applause from the audience.

Out of everyone in the auditorium, perhaps the woman beaming from the front row was the most proud, his mom, Jaimee Warner, who said she’s so grateful to have him as a son.

“He’s always been like that since he was little, all the time, always wanted to help people out,” she said.

Warner said the woman he helped is still recovering.

On Saturday, he begins training with the Philadelphia Fire Explorers, a program for young people interested in firefighting and emergency medical services.

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.

Goats graze Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco as nature’s wildfire prevention

By Julie Sharp

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Around 600 goats are grazing the Arroyo Seco, helping to reduce fire-prone vegetation across 100 acres in Pasadena’s natural parkland.

The goats were released last weekend and will keep chomping through the area for the next couple of months, with electrified fencing in place to keep them contained.

The environmentally friendly wildfire remediation method is funded through the City of Pasadena and the nonprofit One Arroyo Foundation. The nonprofit’s Goat-Fund-Me efforts are still underway, where donors can name a goat or sponsor a full or half acre for “a safer Pasadena.”

“The landscape acts as a natural wind tunnel where fires can move quickly, contributing to its designation as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone,” One Arroyo Foundation wrote on its website.

The goats can reach areas that machinery can’t, cutting through brush and lower tree branches – and they return the nutrients to the soil.

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.

Wings Over Solano returns with debut of Pink Jet led by all-female crew

By Ashley Sharp

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KOVR) — This weekend, more than 100,000 people are expected to pack Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield for the Wings Over Solano Air Show, which only happens every two years.

The event features inspiring performances from groups like the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the Academy Wings of Blue. But what may end up being the most eye-catching performance is a first-time addition to the show: The Pink Jet.

The Pink Jet is an all-female flight crew on a mission as their bright pink Albatros fighter jet soars through the sky, spitting out pink smoke with pilots dressed in pink flight suits.

“It’s such an incredible aircraft, an incredible jet, and it displays so well,” said pilot and Aerial Angels The Pink Jet president, Stephanie Goetz.

It is a flight honoring the fight of millions of women who have battled and are battling breast cancer, in memory of the Aerial Angels founder and former president.

“We’re building on this legacy of Steve Oakley and his wife, Jamie, who really built this aircraft and built this vision and mission for breast cancer awareness, early detection, supporting survivors,” said Goetz.

As it races through the sky, the fighter jet is also meant to break barriers, helping young girls get inspired and interested in aviation.

“That gives them a chance to see that they too, can do it as well,” said Pink Jet pilot Olga Sannikova.

Before Stephanie Goetz took to the skies she was a news anchor, including for CBS stations.

“I got introduced to aviation when someone called me out of the blue to do a story on aviation. He was a flight instructor, 80 years old, and I went and did the story with him,” said Goetz.

From there, the sky was the limit.

Whether it is cancer or shattering glass ceilings, the message of The Pink Jet is simple.

“It is possible with a positive attitude, with working hard, with really pushing yourself past any barriers that you might have,” said Goetz.

For those attending the air show this year, there are some security changes to keep in mind. Attendees who do not have a real ID will be required to provide a second form of identification like a passport or a social security card to get onto the base. Visitors under 18 do not have to provide any ID.

The show is entirely free and open to the public on Saturday and Sunday.

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Rob and Michele Reiner’s son, Jake, speaks out about his parents’ deaths: “My world, as I knew it, had collapsed”

By Austin Turner

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Jake Reiner, son of Rob and Michele Reiner, spoke out on Friday for the first time since his parents were brutally killed in their Los Angeles home in December, detailing the moment he learned what happened.

In a post to Substack, Jake said he was at the celebration of life for one of his best friends when his sister, Romy, called to tell him that their father was dead. Moments later, he wrote, he found out his mother was also killed.

“My world, as I knew it, had collapsed. I was in a trance,” Jake said. “The only thing I could focus on was that I needed to get to my childhood home. I needed to get to my sister. I needed to figure out what the hell just happened.”

He said he then took a rideshare service from the funeral in downtown LA to his family’s Brentwood home, which he called “unendurable.”

“Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time,” he wrote. “It’s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.”

Rob and Michele were found dead with stab wounds on Dec. 14. Shortly after, their son, Nick, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Nick was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree in a Los Angeles courtroom in February. He pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Rob Reiner, director of iconic films such as “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally…” was 78. Michele Singer Reiner, an accomplished photographer and film producer, was 70.

Jake then wrote about his grief and described his relationship with his parents. He only alluded to his brother, not mentioning his name, at the end of the more than 1,600-word post.

“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” Jake wrote. “Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it. It’s almost too impossible to process. I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.”

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Orange County music therapy program gives neurodiverse students a musical and emotional platform

By Rina Nakano

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A group of musicians is shattering stereotypes and proving that neurological differences don’t stand in the way of rocking their stage.

Roberto is on the keys, Justin on Congas, Hunter on the sax, Robert on bass, Jesus on timbales, and Joanna on mic, and together they make the Magnet Ensemble, and every member is neurodiverse.

They’re diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, and for 20-year-old Roberto Reyes and his older brother Jesus, it’s autism. Their mother was desperate to find support when they were young.

“She came across an article saying how music can have a big impact,” Roberto said.

For Roberto, it has. He was 1 year old when he first came to the Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, or OCCTAC, for music therapy. The Santa Ana non-profit provides art and therapy programs to low-income and special needs families.

“Growing up, I was bullied for the way I acted,” Roberto said. He said making friends at school was difficult when he was younger, and he struggled with his physical coordination.

But when Roberto began taking piano lessons at OCCTAC at 7, things changed.

“Four words. You can do it.” Musical Coordinator Phoebe Stanciell said, noting that Roberto’s musical and emotional growth has been life-changing.

“Many times there is a stigma when they have a disability, but I feel like if you give them a platform and you actually hear the voice, not necessarily the voice, but the voice of their instrument or whatever skill that they have, it’s a power,” Stanciell said.

Five years ago, she gathered a group of neurodivergent students and launched the Magnet Ensemble. Since then, they’ve performed all over Orange County. Some members wear earplugs to limit noise. Others avoid eye contact. But Reyes says their performances speak for themselves.

Roberto said that what started as a simple therapeutic tool has turned into his passion.”It’s been amazing, to be honest. If I were never diagnosed, I would’ve never started my journey.”

It’s a journey he says he’ll continue for the rest of his life.

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.

AI robots are learning to do simple human tasks at a factory in Massachusetts

By Alyssa Andrews

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    BOSTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Artificial intelligence works when computers learn from data that is readily available. But there is no data to teach robots to do simple human tasks. It needs to be created.

That’s what MIT graduates Josh Gruenstein and Alon Kosowsky-Sachs are working to build. The pair co-founded Tutor Intelligence out of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

“Most people live their lives and never see a robot. That’s going to change really quickly,” said Gruenstein, co-Founder and CEO of Tutor.

Kindergarten for robots

They now host the largest robot data factory in the United States, located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Gruenstein describes it like a kindergarten for robots.

“These robots are doing really basic tasks. They’re picking up individual items, putting them into boxes, trying to fold laundry,” Gruenstein said.

The robots are in their early stages of development. So they mess up quite a bit. They certainly aren’t doing these tasks perfectly-at least not yet. That’s because the data for AI to learn a variety of physical human tasks doesn’t exist.

“The way that models like ChatGPT work is you read all of the books that have ever been written and all of Wikipedia and all of social media, and then you can engage in conversation like a human,” Gruenstein said. “For robotics, we don’t have that source of data. We have to go get it.”

But we know there are some robots doing pretty advanced stuff. So why are these ones in kindergarten class?

“It’s very easy to build a robot that does one job over and over again very well, right?” Gruenstein said. “If you think about a car factory … it’s robots that are doing the exact same motion every single day, because that car isn’t going to change day-to-day. But most physical work doesn’t look like that.”

Can robots learn new tricks? At the heart of this challenge is raising robots that can learn any behavior in any situation. Adapting – like a human would.

“For robots to do all of the jobs and kind of engage with our world in the same way that humans do, they have to be able to learn new skills on the fly, and kind of be general to any environment that they might learn in,” says Gruenstein.

Until then, they are literally creating the data that they will be trained on, alongside 100 of their closest robot friends.

And they won’t be clumsy kindergarteners forever.

“At the rate at which this technology’s advancing that’s going to charge really quickly,” Gruenstein said. “I think within the next five years, you won’t be able to go through your normal day-to-day life without seeing a robot. And I think that’s gonna be a really fascinating and exciting technological and social shift.”

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Cal Poly keeps a piece of first place in Big West with home win versus CSUN

Mike Klan

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) – Freshman Gavin Spiridonoff had three hits and knocked in three runs as Cal Poly defeated Cal State Northridge 8-5. The Mustangs remain tied for first place in the Big West with UCSB and UC San Diego at 13-6.

Tied at 4 with two outs in the sixth inning, Spiridonoff lifted a fly ball to center field that the Matadors lost in the lights and it landed for a gift RBI triple. Nate Castellon followed with an RBI single to put Cal Poly up 6-4.

They added another two runs in the seventh inning with Spiridonoff knocking in a run on an infield single.

Both teams are now 22-18 on the year.

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Power and pitching leads UCSB past Fullerton

Mike Klan

UC SANA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Nate Vargas slugged two of the Gauchos season-high 4 home runs and ace Jackson Flora stayed undefeated on the mound in an 8-3 UCSB win over Cal State Fullerton.

Vargas launched a solo home run in the third inning and a two-run blast in the eighth inning for his first multi-homer game of his career. Vargas, who knocked in four runs, leads UCSB with six home runs this year.

Xavier Esquer smacked a 2-run shot in the third inning while William Vasseur ripped a solo home run in the fifth.

Flora is now 8-0 on the season after allowing just one run in six inning as he lowered his ERA to 0.78 which leads the nation. He scattered 7 hits and struck out 8.

“(Flora’s sweeper) has always been good,” began UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts. “They were heavy right-handed today, they had one left-hander in there; he didn’t look like he had as good of a feel for the changeup today, so we were pretty heavy with that sweeper to get ahead. He did a good job of landing it, finishing guys off with it. He throws a little bit of a harder slider/cutter, which was good.”

“I’ve always been pretty good at supinating and spinning the ball, so it’s pretty easy for me to manipulate the ball going to my glove side,” Flora said. “With some work last year, it’s gotten better this year, just being able to separate it into two different pitches and work it. When hitters see spin, if they see the big breaker first and they see spin again they might think it’s the big breaker again and then all of the sudden it’s the short one, or they have to be geared up for a hard fastball and a hard slider, that doesn’t allow them to be comfortable guessing pitches or guessing speeds. So, somewhere between the heater and the sweeper, that’s been pretty effective and it’s probably my favorite pitch — the hard slider — to throw, so I like it.”

UCSB improves to 27-12 on the year and 13-6 in the Big West. The Gauchos are in a 3-way tie for first place with Cal Poly and UC San Diego.

(UCSB Athletics supplied the quotes).

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Dos Pueblos celebrates 15 student-athletes heading to the next level

Mike Klan

GOLETA, Calif. (KEYT) – It was a full house at Sovine Gymnasium as Dos Pueblos High School recognized 15 student-athletes that have committed to play their chosen sport at four-year colleges.

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