Month: August 2026

By Forrest Sanders

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    NASHVILLE (WTVF) — Always game to take on something new; that’s been the life story of Jenny Pankratz.

“Jenny, who’s your dad?” I asked her.

“Red Foley!” she answered.

First coming to Nashville to record in 1945, country and gospel artist Foley is an important part of what Nashville came to be. He shared country music with the world, touring with artists like Hank Williams. He recorded duets with artists including Ernest Tubb.

“One they might know because Elvis recorded it is Ole Shep!” Pankratz said, mentioning one of Foley’s songs.

There’s no collaborator Foley could have loved more than Pankratz and her sisters.

“The Foley Sisters!” Pankratz said. “He loved his girls. We didn’t have a career. We just had a daddy who liked to hear us sing!”

In fact, Pankratz and her sisters were sometimes invited up by their dad to sing at the Ryman Auditorium in the years it played host to the Grand Ole Opry.

“It would have been 1948-ish,” she remembered. “I was scared! Kinda like I’m starting to feel today!”

I never did say where I was talking to Pankratz.

“Jenny, what are you about to do?” I asked her.

“Jump out of an airplane,” she said, standing in the office of Go Skydive Nashville.

“Do you mind if I ask how old you are?” I asked.

“I’m 86.”

Pankratz and a granddaughter were minutes from their jump at Go Skydive Nashville.

After all, Pankratz spent her life taking part in things that’ll make great stories.

“It’s always nice when somebody recognizes daddy,” she nodded.

“What would he think of you doing this today?” I asked.

“I don’t know! Probably that I’m nuts.”

One time, Foley told Pankratz something about being on stage.

“He said even after all those years he sang, he still felt nervous!” Pankratz remembered. “I must get it from him!”

Even with the nerves, Foley still entered those stages just like Pankratz was about to exit a plane.

“Y’know. I just have for a long time thought about it, said it, then dismissed it, because I thought I’d never do it,” Pankratz remembered. “I decided I’m going to do it!”

From the Grand Ole Opry stage in 1948 to a leap in 2026, life sometimes presents adventures. Pankratz is always game to take on something new.

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 Duaa Israr

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    MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — Earlier this month, Brookfield police conducted a high-risk stop on I-94 after the car was triggered by a Flock camera alert. The vehicle had no connection to a homicide the Milwaukee Police Department was investigating, and the people pulled over were let go.

Now, new body camera video of the incident is shedding light on the incident.

On Aug. 6, several Brookfield officers stopped a car on the side of I-94, weapons drawn. A Flock Safety alert warned officers the car was connected to a Milwaukee homicide investigation involving an armed suspect.

There was just one issue — Milwaukee police had cleared the vehicle from their investigation, and not from the Flock system and the people pulled over were not the suspects police were searching for.

“They never took it out of the system,” one Brookfield officer can be heard telling the man who was removed from the car.

“So, why’d they release the car?” the man is heard asking officers.

“I don’t know. Milwaukee, man,” the officer says.

“We just got my truck out of evidence. I have the papers and the thing. We literally just got out of evidence,” the woman removed from the stopped vehicle tells officers.

“Okay, it’s still entered in the system as being used in a homicide. We’ll get this, we’ll get this…,” the officer replies.

Milwaukee police acknowledged the mistake writing, “MPD staff inadvertently did not remove a vehicle alert from the system”

In the body cam video, officers can be heard calling the situation “unbelievable,” as they worked to sort out the traffic stop.

“They (expletive) released the car to them without taking it out of the system. He literally said we just got back from Milwaukee taking it out. Unbelievable,” one officer says.

Brookfield police say officers acted on the information available to them and “did in fact stop the vehicle that was the subject of the flock alert.”

“Constant issue,” one officer says. “This is a constant issue.”

“This is the worst one,” another officer is heard saying.

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 Marjie Ducey

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (Omaha World-Herald) — Omaha resident Lauren Williams arrives at her front door tall, striking and as colorful as her bright purple house.

Her fruit earrings, unicorn shirt and two-toned bellbottoms preview what you’ll find inside — rainbows, carousel horses, disco balls and swirly items of every description. Even her two white cats have tinges of pink and blue.

“I’m a 12-year-old girl in a 45-year-old body,” she says as she shows off the northwest Omaha home she shares with her two teenage sons. Her parents, Brian and Laura Bross, once lived across the street.

Williams started work on the inside of what she calls the Kaleidoscope Home about five years ago after a divorce. Her goal, she says, is to come home to a happy house. No tan colors are allowed. Instead, her aesthetic is rainbows — many, many rainbows.

She discovered they fill her with joy as she also dealt with the loss of her mother and then her job, so her preferred pastel version can be spotted everywhere.

“Every room is done in a theme,” she said. “They all have a rainbow touch to them.”

There’s her iridescent kitchen, with the cabinets and counter she redid herself; her carousel horse entryway and the rainbow jungle bathroom. Disco balls of every size dangle in the living space where she hangs out each week with her friends, who call themselves the Chaos Cats.

Rainbow fur walls lead to the basement, nicknamed Candyland. It smells divine, too.

Last year, she painted the outside of her house purple with butterfly shutters. Her collections spill across the front lawn, and the sidewalk to the front door is, you guessed it, painted in a rainbow theme.

She’s had no complaints from neighbors, and sons Easton and Barrett have grown to like the bright interior.

“Originally, they hated it. They said, ‘Mom, this is so girly.’ Then they started having their friends over,” Williams said. “Their friends think it’s the coolest house ever. I’m the hub. The kids want to be over here.”

The expansive backyard has not been forgotten. She’s redoing it with an “Alice in Wonderland” theme and has turned an old basketball court into a chessboard.

She’s creating all the chess pieces herself using her 3D printer. Each has three parts that take about eight hours to produce.

“There’s going to be a bunch of little rainbow pathways, a water feature and a fire pit. I have a lot of ideas,” Williams said. “I want to put a small pool back there eventually. I have a third of an acre. I’m trying to use up less grass. My yard is a lot of work.”

She’s already added 50 trees, including apple, cherry, weeping willow and Little Giant Arborvitae for privacy.

Williams, whose mom was an artist and dad worked in construction, works full time and has many side jobs, including event planner. She’d love the chance to decorate for others who enjoy her whimsical vibe.

It’s all-consuming. Work on the house takes up most nights and weekends.

She isn’t afraid to tackle big jobs. She’s knocked down a few walls to build the bathroom and closet off the main bedroom and to expand the kitchen.

Her original accent pieces are found at department stores, Facebook Marketplace, online and at Goodwill and are adapted to her style. A large pegasus outside, named Starlite, took hours to accent with rainbow colors.

The stairway walls to the second floor have been done in a wallpaper collage. Butterflies she made from paint samples flit on the ceiling. A Dr. Seuss desk in her office area was constructed from 155 pieces of wood.

She’ll never be done with the house or the yard, she says. She’s got too many ideas. She’s already redoing some rooms and has plans for every surface of the house. All involve color.

“Why do we have to get boring when we reach a certain age?”

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 Joey Martin

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    TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KIVI) — A father and son from Burley are speaking exclusively to Idaho News 6 about the moments they stepped up during the mass shooting at the Twin Falls In-N-Out — taking a bullet and trying to save lives as chaos erupted around them.

Paul and Jason Cannon are among the good samaritans credited with saving lives when gunfire erupted at the In-N-Out drive-thru earlier this month. The shooting left three people dead and several others injured.

“We were going to make sure we got everybody out,” Paul said.

The pair say an off-duty Idaho State Police Trooper, Steve McClain, identified himself to them during the shooting, and the father and son sprang into action to back him up.

“I didn’t know exactly what was going on — but I know that we had to help,” Paul said.

“God… he urged me to get up and see what was going on,” Jason said.

“We followed him into the back area … my main thing was to get everybody out,” Paul said.

Surveillance video released by the Twin Falls Police Department shows Paul and Jason appearing as Trooper McClain clears the kitchen. That’s when they began trying to help Ashley Garibay, identified by Twin Falls Police as the first victim shot.

“I saw Ashley laying under the table, where they do the potatoes, and I turned around and tried to call 911 a couple times — I turned back around and she was already lying flat on her stomach,” Jason said.

The pair say Ashley was already gone.

Surveillance video shows the shooter returned just seconds later. According to video narration released by Twin Falls Police, the off-duty trooper and the gunman exchanged fire. The gunman retreated before returning to the payment window a fourth time, firing inside and striking a fourth victim — a good Samaritan who was attempting to assist the off-duty trooper and render aid to the victim inside.

That fourth victim was Paul.

“I saw the suspect turn around and he fired at us and I tried to shield my son — so I kind of turned and I got it right in the side,” Paul said.

Even with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, Paul kept trying to help others who were still hiding get out.

“All I know is that I wasn’t leaving anybody behind — so I told the girl hiding under the bench … ‘come on sweetie — I’ve got to get you out of here — if you don’t leave, I can’t leave’ and I said ‘I’ve been shot and I need to go to the hospital,'” Paul said.

Still bleeding, the two say they stayed to make sure no one else was left behind.

“My son tried to pick up Ashley and was having a hard time with her, so he ran out and got somebody else to come in — and that young man came in and grabbed Ashley and pulled her out — and then we went to the bathroom to make sure both bathrooms were cleared and then we cleared the rest of the restaurant,” Paul said.

Once outside, Jason focused on getting his father to the hospital — but chaos in the parking lot made that difficult. Another bystander stepped in to help.

“Another guy said, ‘hey I can get out — let me take you to the hospital’ — it was a pastor out of Hazelton and they asked if they could pray for me and I said ‘heck yeah, I could use all the prayer I could get’ and I apologized several times for bleeding all over his truck,” Paul said.

Paul was treated and released and is now back home recovering.

“I’ve got a lot of shrapnel in my arm — and my side and my back. But…” Paul said.

When I asked if he was doing OK, he smiled.

“Yeah, I’m here today,” Paul said.

Paul and Jason say they don’t consider themselves heroes. They say the true heroes are those who lost their lives, the first responders, and those who fought back.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KIVI verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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 Maddie Augustine

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    OAK CREEK, Wisconsin (WISN) — A dramatic rescue saved a woman from drowning in Lake Michigan at Bender Park in Oak Creek on Sunday. Multiple bystanders, including a man on a jet ski, jumped into action immediately.

Tony Mansour said he was enjoying a day at the beach with family and friends, and right when they were getting ready to head home, chaos unfolded.

“Some guy came running, like asking for a lifeguard. And then we asked, ‘Like, why?’ And he said, ‘Like, there’s someone drowning,'” Mansour said.

Mansour said he didn’t think twice. He grabbed his jet ski and got into the water.

“Usually I like going on the jet ski when it’s rough, so I already know how to deal with the waves,” Mansour said.

His friend, Murad Karim, also joined in the effort. Karim said he took off sprinting toward the break wall to try and get a visual on the person in need of help. The two men told 12 News the waves were relentless and nearly 4-5 feet high. Each wave, however, made the woman barely visible on the surface just beyond the break wall.

“Tony couldn’t see, and he went in the beginning, went far a little bit,” Karim said. “So I told everybody to try to point down together. Maybe it would help. Everybody from the shore, trying to just, like, yell out something to tell her to grab on, that she couldn’t even had no power, no physical strength.”

The joint effort and pointing did help. With Karim and multiple other bystanders guiding Mansour in the general direction of the woman, Mansour finally spotted her. Mansour said another bystander had thrown a life preserver toward the woman, but she wasn’t able to reach it.

“She couldn’t, like, recognize that there’s someone to help, so I yelled at her,” Mansour said. “She opened her eyes. I threw the life jacket.”

Mansour said eventually the woman was able to grab his life jacket and the preserver. From there he said he stayed with her for nearly 15 minutes until help arrived.

“I tried just to keep her away from the rocks,” Mansour said.

Karim said the moment a rescue swimmer from Oak Creek Fire reached the two in the water was a huge moment of relief.

“The best moment to me, like, ‘Oh, thank God.’ Like, somebody who can get her out of there because he couldn’t even pull her,” Karim said.

Both men said the situation was terrifying, but they are glad they were there to help.

“I feel good,” Mansour said. “She’s safe and able to go through her life.”

The Oak Creek Fire Department said the woman was taken to the hospital for an evaluation.

Oak Creek Fire said that people entering the water should be aware of the water conditions and mindful of their own swimming ability.

Lake Michigan waters are far different from inland lakes and swimming pools.

Karim said he hopes people will take the dangers of the water seriously and that more safety measures can be added to the beach area.

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 Samantha Pastorino

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — 1,553 miles.

That’s how far Brady McDonald will have run once he completes his mission of running a 50K in every state — in only 50 days.

“We’re doing this to raise $1 million for Make-A-Wish,” Brady said.

Brady and his family were up before the sun Friday morning at Flanagan Lake Park.

“Today is day number 28. We still have 22 (days) left after Nebraska today. I was actually feeling pretty good up until like two days ago, then I started getting a cold, ” Brady said.

But Brady is pushing through, with his wife and daughters right alongside him.

“Super good!” youngest daughter Lexi said about how it’s been traveling along on the mission.

The family received donated RVs from Camping World that take them state to state.

“As soon as (Brady) takes off, I make sure that everything’s set up for the next location in the next parts of the day,” Brady’s wife, Kristy McDonald, said.

Kristy lost her arm at 15 after being run over by a boat. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her a wish back then. Now, the McDonald family is hoping to return that wish times a hundred.

“We want to just put the smiles on the kids’ faces and their families as well. Ultimately, we want to grant 100 wishes,” Brady said.

“For us, it’s not about the miles. It’s not about the states. It is truly just about the hundred lives that we’re trying to help,” Brady said.

Brady documents each run on his YouTube page.

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 Ashley Kirklen

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    MASON, Ohio (WLWT) — Tennis star Coco Gauff had a thrilling end to the Cincinnati Open on Sunday, defeating Jessica Pegula for her second Cincinnati Open women’s title.

One person who was perhaps just as thrilled as Coco got to see her play in the tournament during a trip of a lifetime.

Roberta Eaton, a 79-year-old woman from Atlanta, has had a tough year, battling a second bout with breast cancer and taking care of her ill husband.

When her children wanted to do something to celebrate her upcoming 80th birthday, a lightbulb went off to get her to Cincinnati for the annual tennis tournament.

Eaton has been a tennis lover and a spectator since the late 1960s. No matter the time or place, when Coco is playing a match, Eaton is watching.

“I followed Arthur Ashe, I followed Zina Garrison and the Williams sisters forever, and I still follow them, and then Osaka and Coco,” Roberta said.

This year, Eaton has faced a couple of fierce opponents of her own.

Her husband suffered a brain injury due to sepsis, and breast cancer made a return 20 years after she beat it for the first time.

When her daughter N’Jeri got tickets to the Cincinnati Open, she posted them on social media and tagged Gauff.

“I posted it on Tuesday night (and) at some point on Thursday, I got connected to Coco’s assistant,” N’Jeri Eaton said. “She told me it was her dad who actually saw the video first and then shared.”

Another fan who had courtside seats made sure to look out for Coco’s biggest fan and brought her down to her seats.

From there, Coco’s team and the Cincinnati Open staff coordinated to make Roberta’s dream come true.

“It has been the absolute time of my life,” Roberta said.

Roberta will be 80 on Sept. 6.

Originally, her kids wanted to get her tickets to see Coco at the U.S. Open, but Roberta said she loves Cincinnati and has family here, so she wanted to be at this year’s tournament.

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 Allie Ware

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    JACKSON, Mississippi (WAPT) — A man who arrived at the Mississippi Burn Center in late 2025 with burns covering nearly 100% of his body has survived, thanks to cutting-edge treatments and support from medical professionals.

“The total body area was 96 percent. He had some skin on the bottom of his foot and one armpit,” Dr. Derek Culnan said. “Ninety-one percent of his body was third-degree, so his skin was cooked all the way through.”

The patient, who is still processing the trauma, was not ready to share his story on camera but said he hopes sharing his experience can give others hope. Culnan explained the innovative treatments used to save the man’s life, starting with a steroid treatment.

“We got a special permit from the FDA and got him on that, and I think that was a large part in getting muscle mass back and strength to heal,” Culnan said.

Another critical step involved growing skin cells in a lab in Boston.

“We took a biopsy when he got in here, and they went and processed it, and that is where we got the bulk of the skin that we covered him with,” Culnan said. “The folks in that lab were able to grow skin cells and give us skin sheets that were in a time frame where he could survive.”

The next phase of the patient’s recovery focused on regaining function.

“His feet had fallen into equinus. Basically, he was on his tippy-toes because, with all the grafting, we were not able to stretch his ankle enough to get them upright,” Culnan said.

Specialized braces were used to help him learn to walk again.

“The two rings go up on the leg and bolt into someone’s tibia. These bars go into the heel bone, and these go into all five toes,” Culnan said. “What happens is there are actually motors installed here, and they move progressively over a month to move the foot up.”

The patient is now in a rehabilitation center, working to heal and adapt to his new normal. Culnan described his story as an example of human resilience and faith.

Culnan also noted that the Burn Foundation of America played a significant role in the patient’s recovery, even covering the cost of the steroid treatment that helped him regain muscle mass and strength.

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.