Month: June 2026

By Alan Gionet

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — A rescue mission flown to retrieve an injured climber last weekend is now the highest known hoist rescue ever in Colorado.

On June 13, a Colorado Army National Guard UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter lifted two hoist rescue technicians to an injured man from a saddle on the east side of Crestone Peak near the border of Custer and Saguache Counties.

The Army National Guard says the man was hoisted at 14,356 feet, with the UH-60L Blackhawk maintaining a peak hover at 14,380 feet with 180 feet of cable extended.

The climber was a man who had fallen 30 feet and while he was wearing a helmet he complained of head and other injuries.

Search and rescue teams from Custer and Saguache Counties as well as Alamosa were hiking in on the ground as two hoist rescue specialists from Alpine Rescue were lowered in from the air. Two other medical helicopters were nearby on either side of the peak to assist as well.

Once the man was lifted off the mountain, he was airlifted to medical care and at last word was doing well. Saturday’s rescue exceeded the height flown during a rescue in 2025 on Torreys Peak in which a lightning victim was retrieved. That person was hoisted from an altitude of over 14,200 feet. High altitude flying is inherently risky because of the lack of lift in thin air.

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 Jesse Sarles

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — A man is in the hospital in western Colorado after another man allegedly shot him with a crossbow. That’s according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, which says the crime happened earlier this week in Clifton.

Curtis Fryer, 47, was arrested is accused of firing the crossbow at the victim on Tuesday night in the 400 block of Cougar Run Court.

Fryer, who lives in Clifton, is now charged with assault, menacing and reckless endangerment.

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 Lauren Victory

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    CHICAGO, Illinois (WBBM) — Four Black-owned construction firms joined forces with a fifth company to create a model never seen before in the industry and oversee the construction of the newly opened Obama Presidential Center. Now they’re hoping to leave behind a lasting legacy.

The dream of what eventually became Lakeside Alliance started while President Barack Obama was still in office. A 2015 lunch meeting between construction competitors turned foes into family.

“We all became one big working family,” said Kelly Powers Baria, executive vice president at Powers & Sons Construction, which teamed up with Brown & Momen, Safeway Construction, UJAMAA Construction, and Turner Construction Company to form Lakeside Alliance. “Ten years ago, we would’ve thought of ourselves much more as competitors.”

Baria represents the third generation of Powers & Sons. It was her father’s idea to go big on a bid for the Obama Presidential Center project by collaborating with other construction firms – specifically Black-owned companies, like Jimmy Akintonde’s UJAMAA Construction.

“We needed to be not just be part of the construction process, we needed to lead it, and that was his idea, and that’s when he planted it in my head. I thought he was a little crazy,” Akintonde said.

Crazy because such an alliance was unheard of. The four minority contractors are rivals turned revolutionizers.

On their own, they wouldn’t have been hired for this large of a job, because their businesses were too small.

“There are limitations up to a certain point,” said Ernest Brown, founder of Brown & Momen.

So the four companies pooled their talent, resources, and experience to make it happen.

“Everyone’s path to get here was different, so everyone’s past experience and what they could bring to the table was different,” Baria said.

Turner Construction helped navigate those challenges as the fifth founding member of Lakeside Alliance. The megafirm books billions of dollars of work a year: airports, hotels, data centers, and more.

“This is a generational project. Because of the complexity of the building – the building’s complex, the building is you know, very high quality, but it’s also who the building is for and what that represents,” said Junisa Brima, vice president and construction executive at Turner Construction.

The huge undertaking with not one but five companies in charge meant a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

“That added some complexity, for a bunch of company cultures coming together, but it also added to the sense of one team,” Brima said.

Akintonde said Lakeside Alliance proved they could collaborate successfully on such a large project. The team shrugs off criticism that the end result was overbudget and overdue. The project initially was estimated to cost $500 million and to be completed in 2021, but by selecting historic Jackson Park for the site of the center led to a lengthy federal review process and legal challenges. The cost of the project ended up being $850 million.

“There are adjustments on any project. I don’ot care how small or large it is,” Brown said.

Lakeside Alliance said they’re focused on and proud of what they accomplished together. It’s a list that’ll keep growing as the team takes on other projects.

“The idea of collaboration, especially when it’s lived, it’s a really nice thing to have,” Akintonde said. “It’s an industry future.”

A future full of representation that they hope young eyes will notice.

Safeway Construction CEO John W. Bonds, sadly, did not live to see the Obama Presidential Center completed. He passed away last year, but Lakeside Alliance said he was an integral part of the team, who had an uncanny ability to get them laughing whenever something went

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By Kristina Rex

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    DUXBURY, Massachusetts (WBZ) — For one of the final hearings ahead of her July 20 murder trial, Lindsay Clancy was wheeled into the Plymouth courtroom in a wheelchair.

Clancy is paralyzed after a suicide attempt on the same night she allegedly killed her three children back in 2023 in Duxbury, Massachusetts. She receives full-time care at Tewksbury Hospital and receives rides with nurses’ care 64 miles to and from the Plymouth court.

Prosecutors allege that Clancy murdered her three young children on a January night in 2023, as her husband Patrick was out getting the family takeout.

“She takes responsibility,” Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington said after the hearing. “She, as the kids say, she owns it. She’s not running away from anything here. This whole case is an extreme tragedy.”

Reddington said nobody disputes what happened the night of the children’s death. Rather, they dispute why.

Clancy’s defense will focus on her mental health. Her lawyer alleges that postpartum mental health issues caused the tragic result that night. Prosecutors, rather, claim the acts were planned and deliberate.

Husband will testify in trial In one of the final hearings ahead of the trial on Thursday, prosecutors revealed that Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s husband and the father of the three children, will testify in the trial. They also asked the judge for permission to play his harrowing 911 call, during which he discovers his children’s lifeless bodies.

Judge Sullivan said he’s likely to allow the entire 911 clip to be played for the jury but wants to listen to it first to determine if any of it needs to be excluded from trial.

There were some heated moments in the hearing, as lawyers sparred over whether Lindsay Clancy’s parents and sister should be allowed in the courtroom before they’re called to testify.

“We’ve tried to meet with these witnesses, with the defendant’s parents and sister, but they’ve refused to meet with us for trial prep,” prosecutor Jennifer Sprague told the judge.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington replied emphatically, “Well, here we go I guess – starting right out of the gate. That is absolutely improper to represent that they refused to meet with the district attorney.”

“We have been extremely cooperative,” Reddington said.

One other contentious point, the man who now owns Clancy’s Duxbury home is asking the court to prohibit the jury from a “view” to see the crime scene. “I find it very disingenuous of the homeowner, who is an attorney and not only an attorney, but he was a prosecutor in our office and so he knows how we handle cases,” Prosecutor Sprague told the judge. “He knows how we do trials. And now he’s a defense attorney in this county.”

The judge disregarded the homeowner’s privacy concerns and said he would allow the jury to go on a “view” to the scene during trial.

Lindsay Clancy’s presence in courtroom Regarding Clancy’s presence, attorney Reddington told reporters he’s inclined to get permission to keep her out of the courtroom for especially gruesome testimony, including autopsy photos.

Still, he said his client would likely want to be present if the court so orders despite the pain. “I don’t understand how she’s going to be able to have the strength to go through that,” Reddington said. “Well, people say, ‘well you know she did it so she’s going to have to go through it.'”

Clancy has another hearing on July 13 and jury selection starts on July 20. The trial is expected to last four to six weeks.

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.